GIFT  or 

JANE  K.SATHER 


^-  j&Ztt^Lj, 


'*" 

^Jfc.  SNV 


LIFE 

OF    THE 

• 

HON.  NATHANIEL  MACON, 

OF   NORTH    CAROLINA; 
IN     WHICH     THERE     IS     DISPLAYED 


STRIKING    INSTANCES    OP    VIRTUE,    ENTERPRISE,    COUR 
AGE,    GENEROSITY    AND    PATRIOTISM. 


HIS    PUBLIC    LIFE: 

Illustrating  the  blessing  of  political  union, — the  miseries  of  faction, — and  the 
mischiefs  of  despotic  power  in  any  government. 


HIS    PRIVATE     LIFE: 

Furnishing  lessons  upon  the  science  of  social  happiness  and  religious  freedom, 

of  greater  value  perhaps,  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  biography  of  any 

other  character,  either  ancient  or  modern, — "having  lived 

and  died  without  an  enemy." 


BY    EDWARD    R.    GOTTEN, 

OF     :Vo>Rf  H  ,  C  AR  0  LI  N  A  :' ' 


BALTIMORE: 
Printed  by  Lucas  &  Deaver. 


1840. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840,  by  Edward  R« 
Gotten,  in  the  Clerk's  Office,  of  the  District  Court  of  Maryland. 


TO   THE   READER. 


AN  author,  who  produces  a  book,  be  it  good  or  bad, 
in  some  measure  exhibits  his  heart  to  the  world,  provi 
ded  this  book  contains  thoughts  which,  if  he  has  not  in 
vented,  (and  indeed  in  our  days  there  is  little  left  for  in 
vention,)  he  has  at  least  found  and  made  his  own.  He 
not  only  reveals  the  subjects,  that  have  employed  his 
thoughts  at  certain  periods,  the  doubts  that  have  oc 
curred  to  perplex  him  in  his  journey  through  life,  and 
the  solutions,  with  which  he  has  removed  them ;  but  he 
reckons  upon  some  minds  in  unison  with  his  own,  be 
they  ever  so  few,  to  which  these  or  similar  ideas  will 
prove  of  importance  in  the  labyrinth  of  life.  This  is 
the  most  estimable  merit  of  authorship,  and  a  man  of 
good  heart  will  feel  much  less  pleasure  from  what  he 
says,  than  from  what  he  excites. 

He  who  reflects,  how  opportunely  this  or  that  book, 
or  merely  this  or  that  hint  in  a  book,  has  sometimes 
fallen  in  his  way  ;  what  pleasure  it  has  afforded  him, 
to  perceive  a  distant  mind,  yet  actively  near  him  in  his 
own,  and  how  such  a  hint  has  often  occupied  for  years, 
and  led  him  on  still  farther:  will  consider  an  author 
who  converses  with  him,  and  imparts  to  him  his  inmost 


383633 


4 >\ :  :  *a  STHE  READER. 

thoughts,  not  as  one  who  labours  for  hire,  but  as  a  friend 
who  confidentially  discloses  his  yet  imperfect  ideas,  that 
the  more  experienced  reader,  who  may  think  in  concert 
with  him,  may  improve  upon  them.  This  invisible  com 
merce  of  hearts  and  minds  is  the  one  great  benefit  of 
printing,  without  which  it  would  be  of  as  much  injury 
as  advantage  to  a  literary  nation. 

It  was  a  custom  among  the  ancient  Romans,  to  pre 
serve,  in  wax,  the  figures  of  those,  among  their  ances 
tors  whose  personal  merits  and  rare  exploits  had  procu 
red  them  the  honors  of  their  country  ;  that  their  coun 
trymen  by  beholding  those  likenesses  might  have  enkin 
dled  in  their  breast  so  ardent  a  thirst  after  virtue  as  could 
not  be  extinguished,  till  by  the  glory  of  their  own  ac 
tions  they  had  equalled  the  illustrious  objects  of  their 
emulation. 

The  good  sense  of  mankind,  confirmed  by  the  lapse 
of  ages,  have  fixed  this  point,  that  example  is  that  sort 
of  rhetorick  which  at  the  same  time  convinces  and  per 
suades, — constraining  the  assent  of  the  judgment  to  that 
fine  remark,  "could  we  see  virtue  in  all  her  charms,  she 
would  ravish  all  our  hearts," — while  vice  and  ignorance, 
seen  in  all  their  horrid  deformities,  would  dispose  us  to 
turn  away  from  them  with  loathing  and  abhorrence ; 
hence  the  biography  of  meritorious  men,  correctly  por 
trayed,  must  be  of  universal  consequence.  Well  might 
Dr.  Johnson  say,  "no  species  of  writing  seemed  more 
worthy  of  cultivation  than  biography,  since  none  can  be 
more  delightful  or  more  useful,  nor  can  more  certainly 
enchain  the  heart  by  irresistible  interest,  or  more  widely 
diffuse  instruction  to  every  diversity  of  condition.." 


TO  THE  READER.  5 

The  author  of  the  present  work  considering  himself 
in  the  circle  of  those,  who  actually  felt  themselves  inte 
rested  in  the  subject  on  which  he  wrote,  and  on  which 
he  was  desirous  of  calling  forth  and  participating  their 
better  thoughts, — in  offering  to  their  patronage  and  the 
public,  the  present  volume,  intended  as  a  tribute  to  the 
personal  virtues  and  public  services  of  the  distinguished 
individual  who  is  the  subject  of  it, — flatters  himself 
that  he  performs  a  service  which  will  obtain  their  appro 
bation  and  support.  That  his  incapacity  to  do  entire 
justice  to  such  a  subject,  and  that  his  design  and  its  exe 
cution  have  not  received  that  high  finish  that  he  wished 
and  of  which  the  subject  was  susceptible,  he  readily  ac 
knowledges.  Yet  he  trusts  it  will  be  acceptable  to  the 
public,  from  the  consideration,  that  every  tribute  of  this 
nature,  paid  to  a  public  benefactor,  is  a  public  good. 
And  the  severity  of  their  censures  and  the  asperities  of 
their  criticisms  should  be  some  what  mitigated,  from  the 
motives  of  the  undertaking. 

That  historians  generally  have  written  under  the  im- 
pulse  of  a  thousand  different  passions,  the  author  is  well 
aware.  That  the  politician  has  heretofore  represented 
man,  as  divided  into  nobility  and  commonality,  into  pa 
pist  and  hugurnots,  into  soldiers  and  slaves, — the  mo 
ralist  into  avaricious,  hypocritical,  the  debauched  the 
proud, — the  tragic  poet  into  tyrants,  and  their  victims, — 
the  comic  into  drolls,  and  buffoons, — and  the  physician 
into  the  pituitous,  billious  and  the  plegmatic,  exhibiting 
them  as  subjects  of  aversions,  of  hatred,  or  of  con 
tempt,  until  man  universally  dissected  by  them,  no 
thing  now  is  shewn  of  him,  but  the  carcase.  He  is 
also  well  aware,  that  by  the  perversion  of  his  reason 
1* 


6  TO  THE  READER* 

in  educating  him,  man  too,  has  also  been  degraded, — 
being  originally  born  good,  society  has  rendered  him 
wicked,  and  our  mode  of  education  prepares  the  way 
for  it, — by  teaching  him  to  deduce  false  consequen 
ces, — he  is  also  convinced.  The  regent  or  president 
of  the  college  informing  him  that  Jupiter  and  Appollo 
are  Gods.  The  parish  minister  telling  him  that  they  are 
demons.  The  professor  assures  his  pupil,  that  Virgil,  who 
who  has  so  nobly  supported  the  doctrine  of  a  providence, 
is  got  at  least  to  the  Elysian  fields,  and  that  he  enjoys  in 
this  world  the  esteem  of  all  good  men.  The  curate  in 
forms  him  that  this  same  Virgil  was  a  pagan  and  must 
certainly  be  damned.  The  gospel  holding  a  contradic 
tory  language,  recommending  to  the  young  man  to  be 
last ;  his  college  urging  him  by  all  means  to  be  first ; 
virtue  commanding  him  to  descend ;  education  bidding 
him  rise.  And  what  renders  the  contradiction  still  more 
glaring  to  the  poor  lad,  it  frequently  proceeds,  especially 
in  the  country,  from  one  and  the  same  mouth.  For  the 
same  good  ecclesiastic,  in  many  places,  teaches  the  classics 
in  the  morning,  and  the  catechism  at  night.  Thus  even 
the  master  of  our  creation,  like  every  thing  else  in  na 
ture,  has  been  degraded  by  our  learning.  But  the  au 
thor  flatters  himself  that  the  reader,  by  an  attentive  peru 
sal  of  the  following  pages,  will  discover  the  perfectability 
of  our  nature, — and  in  this  true  and  faithful  representa 
tion  of  the  character  which  is  the  subject  of  them,  that 
man  is  not  that  "  degraded  mass  of  animated  dust"  as 
heretofore  represented.  The  object  of  this  book  then, 
is  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  to  reform  the  vicious  and  re 
lieve  the  miserable.  And  to  render  it  more  worthy  of 
public  approbation,  the  author  when  he  sat  down  to 


TO  THE  READER.  7 

write,  did  not  hesitate  to  express  himself  fully  without 
a  tutor  or  examiner.  For  he  who  sits  down  to  write 
being  apprehensive  he  should  drop  a  seism,  or  some 
thing  of  corruption,  has  no  advantage  over  the  school  boy 
at  school,  who  has  only  escaped  the  ferular,  to  come 
under  the  fiscue  of  an  imprimatur.  He  who  cannot 
trust  himself  with  his  own  actions,  his  drift  not  being 
known  to  be  evil,  and  standing  to  the  hazard  of  law 
and  penalty,  has  no  great  argument  to  think  himself  de 
serving  of  public  favour. 

The  author  is  of  an  opinion,  when  a  man  writes  to 
the  world,  he  should  summons  up  all  his  reasons  and 
deliberations  to  assist  him ;  he  should  search,  meditate 
and  be  industrious,  and  after  this  he  should  take  himself 
to  be  informed  in  what  he  writes,  as  well  as  those  who 
might  assume  to  instruct  him.  But  if  in  this,  the  most 
consummate  act  of  his  fidelity  and  ripeness,  he  should  still 
distrust  himself,  unless  he  carries  all  his  considerate  dili 
gence,  all  his  midnight  watchings  and  trouble,  to  the 
hasty  view  of  some  valued  friend,  perhaps  licensed  crit 
ic,  much  his  inferior,  perhaps  one  who  never  knew  the 
labour  of  book-writing,  and  if  he  be  not  repulsed  or 
slighted  must  appear  in  print,  like  a  puny,  as  a  celebra 
ted  author  says  with  his  guardian,  and  his  censor's  hand 
on  the  back  of  the  title  to  be  his  bail  and  surity,  that  he 
is  no  idiot  or  seducer,  it  cannot  but  be  a  dishonor  and 
derogation  to  the  author,  to  the  book,  to  the  privilege 
and  dignity  of  learning.  With  these  views  of  the  du 
ties  of  authors  generally,  the  present  author  has  not  pre 
sented  the  world  with  a  book  already  examined  and 
corrected  by  literary  hirelings  and  learned  friends,  fore 
going  its  taste  and  judgment;  and  had  he  been  so  dis- 


8  TO  THE  READER. 

posed,  he  had  neither  money  to  procure  the  former,  nor 
means  of  access  to  the  latter, — but  assuming  to  himself 
that  he  was  sufficiently  qualified  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  most  material  facts  essential  to  its  accomplishment, 
he  set  about  it  with  a  confidence  with  which  he  believed 
all  authors  should  possess. 

As  to  the  style  in  which  this  book  is  written,  the  au 
thor  has  nothing  to  observe.  Its  merit  must  be  tested  in 
the  crucible  of  a  discriminative  taste  and  cultivated  intel 
lect.  That  wherever  he  conceived  it  would  be  more 
useful  or  better  fitted  in  its  composition,  he  has  adopted 
the  thoughts  and  language  of  others,  will  be  easily  dis 
covered  by  readers  of  extensive  memory.  In  doing  this, 
he  has  copied  them  verbatim  et  literatim;  nay,  punctatim, 
without  disguise, — viewing  it  as  a  literary  compliment 
to  the  authors  quoted,  rather  than  any  disparagement  or 
positive  injury. 

Finally, — as  the  present  obscurity  of  the  author  ren 
ders  it  impossible  he  should  have  the  presumption  from 
this  humble  production,  to  aspire  to  that  elevated  niche 
in  the  temple  of  fame  which  some  men  have  been 
allowed  to  occupy  by  universal  consent, — he  here  begs 
leave  to  tend  this  address  to  the  reader  to  supply  the 
formalities  of  a  preface  and  introduction. 


LIFE   OF 
NATHANIEL    UIACOUT, 


CHAPTER   I. 

IT  has  been  said,  that  there  are  always  some  admira 
ble  traits  of  character  that  are  almost  inseparable  from 
the  youth  of  a  person,  destined  hereafter  to  play  an  illus 
trious  part  upon  the  theatre  of  mankind.  NATHANIEL 
MACON,  the  subject  of  the  following  pages,  a  native 
of  Warren  county,  North  Carolina,  whose  ancestors  em 
igrated  from  Virginia,  and  stood  as  high  in  their  day  as 
any  people  in  the  state,  was  born  in  1757, — and  man 
ifested  at  an  early  period  of  his  life  a  curiosity  incessant- 
ly  engaged  in  pursuing  enquiries,  and  accumulating  a 
knowledge,  which  to  common  observers  might  have  fre 
quently  appeared  to  be  an  obstinate,  self-will  principle 
of  mind,  wasting  itself,  in  unprofitable  speculations,  and 
refusing  to  bring  its  energies  to  bear  upon  a  pursuit 
pointed  out  to  it  by  another.  Owing  to  this  investiga 
ting  and  combining  quality  of  mind,  this  activity  and 
spirit  of  observation,  (the  inseparable  concomitants  of 
the  curious)  it  may  be  inferred,  he  compressed  more  ex 
perience  in  a  given  period  of  time,  when  a  youth,  than 
any  of  his  ordinary  associates, — and  each  day  in  his  his- 


10  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tory,  furnishing  him  with  a  comment  on  the  last,  he 
would  so  often  have  detected  his  mistakes,  so  frequently 
contemned  the  absurdities  of  youth,  and  felt  with  so 
much  anguish  the  miscarriages  to  which  early  life  is 
subject,  that  he  could  scarcely  fail,  when  the  first  effer 
vescence  of  his  youth  was  over,  to  become  diffident,  self- 
suspicious,  and,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  modest. 

Another  characteristic  of  his  early  life,  was  sincerity. 
A  generous  and  intrepid  frankness,  was  found  to  occupy 
perhaps  the  first  place  in  the  catalogue  of  his  virtues 
when  a  boy.  This  temper  pervaded  the  whole  course 
of  his  reflections  and  his  actions.  It  was  acted  upon 
every  day  by  him,  and  its  propriety,  confirmed  by  every 
night's  experience.  There  was  nothing  which  he  thought 
he  ought  to  reject  with  more  unalterable  firmness  than 
an  action  that  by  its  consequences  reduced  him  to  the 
necessity  of  duplicity  and  concealment.  No  boy  was 
ever  more  eminently  either  respectable,  or  amiable  or 
useful,  among  his  youthful  companions  than  Nathaniel 
Macon,  for  which  distinction  he  was  indebted  mostly  for 
the  frankness  and  candor  of  his  manners.  This  was  the 
grand  fascination  also,  by  which  he  laid  hold  of  the  hearts 
of  all  the  neighbors  of  his  parents  at  an  early  period  of 
his  life,  and  conciliated  their  attention  forever  afterwards. 
His  example  rendering  this  virtue  an  irresistible  object 
of  imitation  to  all  who  knew  him. 

He  was  never  guilty  of  any  of  those  excesses  of  con 
duct  and  offences  against  morality  so  common  to  the  fri 
volity  and  inexperience  of  youth.  But  even  when  a 
pupil,  seemed  to  have  chosen  his  own  favorite  field  of 
distinction,  and  would  often  appear  to  be  callous  to  al 
lurements  which  were  to  invite  him  to  another.  Gross 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  11 

flattery,  and  still  more  the  spiritless  and  tedious  eulogium 
of  superannuated  kindness,  or  that  which  is  dictated  by  a 
left-handed  purpose  of  stratagem  and  bribery,  would  tire 
his  impatience  or  excite  his  disgust.  Though  he  looked 
upon  the  conceit  of  young  persons  generally,  as  a  frigid, 
selfish,  unchastened,  and  unpolished  sentiment ;  yet  he 
possessed  enough  of  it  himself,  as  he  ascended  to  man 
hood  to  give  him  confidence  in  all  his  opinions  formed 
from  reflection ;  and  as  it  was  modified  by  the  better  affec 
tions  and  charities  of  his  heart,  its  coldness  was  so  ani 
mated,  and  its  asperities  so  subdued,  that  it  was  never 
disagreeable  or  disgustful,  to  the  company  he  might  be 
in,  to  express  those  opinions,  when  he  thought  proper. 
Of  all  the  characteristics  of  early  life,  tameness  is  the 
characteristic  of  the  most  fatal  augury.  A  young  man 
of  spirit  just  arriving  at  the  age  of  puberty,  will  like  a 
high  bred,  well  mettled  horse,  champ  the  bit,  and  spurn 
the  earth,  impatient  of  restraint.  And  though  young 
Macon,  from  information,  never  was  known  to  refuse  to 
submit  to  or  disobey,  the  commands  or  dictates  of  the 
anxious  parent  or  Cassocked  pedant ;  yet  he  was  never 
considered  one  of  those  sober,  dull,  obedient  lads  that 
had  no  will,  and  no  understanding  of  their  own.  Where 
there  were  no  positive  enactments,  his  conduct  was  gen 
erally  guided  by  the  dictates  of  the  principles  of  truth 
and  his  own  good  judgment.  Free  to  speak  his  senti 
ments  impartially  whenever  called  upon,  and  the  occa 
sion  required  it,  he  was  frequently  the  arbiter  of  the 
differences  arising  out  of  the  juvenile  sports  of  his  school 
fellows,  whose  universal  submission  to  his  decisions  was 
the  strongest  evidence  they  could  give  of  the  high  re 
spect  they  entertained  of  his  judgment  and  the  un- 


12  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

bounded  confidence  they  had  in  his  impartiality.  He 
excelled  in  most  of  the  athletic  exercises  himself,  but 
whenever  vanquished  by  an  adversary,  always  yielded 
without  controversy,  consequently  he  had  none  of  those 
quarrels  and  broils  so  common  to  boys  of  his  age.  He 
was  always  remarkably  diligent  in  his  attention  to  all  the 
duties  of  the  schools  to  which  he  was  sent,  and  was  sel 
dom  if  ever  called  upon  by  his  masters  without  being 
prepared  to  recite. 

To  conclude: — the  characteristics  of  Nathaniel  Ma- 
con's  mind  and  pursuits,  when  a  youth  properly  investi 
gated,  appear  to  be  totally  different  from  what  even  his 
cotemporaries  ever  conceived  them  to  be.  For  it  seem 
ed  as  if  nature  being  more  than  ordinarily  solicitous 
about  the  future  nurture  and  discipline  of  such  a  mind, 
that  in  the  plentitude  of  her  dalliance,  she  bestowed 
upon  it  an  impress  at  its  birth,  that  protected  and  guided 
it  forever  afterwards  against  the  danger  of  being  deceiv 
ed  or  of  deceiving  any  of  his  fellow  creatures.  All  in 
it  was  order.  Every  thing  in  it  was  subject  to  the  most 
inflexible  laws, — regarding  things  in  a  state  of  clearness, 
discrimination,  and  arrangement,  altogether  uncommon 
ly  critical.  Cultivating  its  own  powers,  and  generating 
its  own  habits,  it  conduced  to  the  making  him  a  man 
superior  to  ordinary  rational  beings,  and  accustomed  him 
to  a  closeness  of  deduction,  that  is  not  easily  made  the 
dupe  of  ambiguity,  and  carries  on  an  eternal  warfare 
against  prejudice  and  imposition.  Initiated  from  its  in 
fancy  in  the  practice  of  close  investigation,  his  opinion 
was  its  own  standard,  which  was  neither  at  the  mercy  of 
his  age,  his  country,  the  books  he  chanced  to  read,  or 
the  company  he  happened  to  frequent.  It  was  not  a  fea- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  13 

ther  for  every  wind  that  blew ;  but  instead  of  floating 
impotently  before  the  capricious  current  of  fashion  and 
opinion,  it  had  thrown  out  all  anchors  and  taken  a  posi 
tion  from  which  nothing  could  move  it  but  reason  and 
truth. 

A  mind  capable  of  application  and  perseverance,  a 
project  once  formed  had  its  associate  resolution  and  pow 
er,  to  carry  it  to  its  completion  ;  so  it  may  be  affirmed  to 
have  consisted  in  analysis  and  dissection  ;  the  turning  a 
thing  on  all  sides,  and  examining  it  in  all  its  varieties  of 
views.  An  ordinary  man  would  see  an  object  just  as  it 
happened  to  be  presented  to  him,  and  see  no  more; 
whilst  the  mind  of  Nathaniel  Macon  would  take  it  to 
pieces,  enquire  into  its  cause  and  effects,  remark  its  in 
ternal  structure,  and  consider  what  would  have  been  the 
result,  if  its  members  had  been  combined  in  a  different 
way,  or  subjected  to  different  influences.  It  was  a  whole 
magazine  of  thought ; — where  the  ordinary  man  had  re 
ceived  only  one  idea,  its  powers  were  multiplied  in  pro 
portion  to  the  number  of  ideas,  upon  which  they  were 
to  be  employed.  Sobriety,  an  awful  and  wide  spread 
ing  tranquility,  that  might  in  one  point  of  view  be  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  grand  Southern  ocean,  were  its 
prominent  characteristics,  and  like  the  waters  of  that 
mighty  ocean,  it  was  not  ruffled  by  every  puff  of  air, 
but  held  its  way  with  a  majestic  course.  It  was  self- 
balance  and  self-centered  ;  always  great,  always  poised, 
it  could  never  be  the  seat,  sometimes  of  ridiculous,  some 
times  dangerous  irregularities.  In  short  it  was  a  mind  so 
conscious  of  its  strength,  it  was  never  presumptuous, 
dogmatical,  fierce,  hard,  unkind,  tempestuous  or  unduly 
severe  in  its  judgment  of  the  character  or  talents  of 


14  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

others.  Filled  to  the  very  brim  with  charity  and  phi- 
lanthrophy  it  carried  along  with  it  the  affections  and 
good  wishes  of  all  who  knew  him,  even  when  a  youth ; 
and  presaged  what  has  taken  place  in  after  life,  that  he 
should  live  and  die  in  such  a  manner,  that  it  may  be 
said  of  him,  that  which  cannot  be  said  of  any  other 
character  either  ancient  or  modern, — that  he  lived  and 
died,  without  an  enemy. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  15 


CHAPTER    II. 

HAVING  occupied  the  whole  of  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book  in  portraying  the  principal  traits  of  Nathaniel 
Macon's  mind  as  well  as  deportment,  during  his  juve 
nile  years,  in  which  even  the  severest  scrutiny  of  impar 
tial  justice  cannot  discover  one  vicious  prognostic,  the 
reader  will  scarcely  fail  to  acknowledge  that  he  adopted 
at  an  early  period  of  his  life,  a  different  course  for  the 
most  part,  from  those  youths  of  every  country  and  every 
age,  whose  habits  so  often,  not  only  leave  an  unfavora 
ble  stain  upon  their  reputation,  but  corrupt  their  disposi 
tions  and  debase  their  characters,  in  such  a  manner  that 
it  is  often  our  duty  to  regret,  whilst  our  charity  compels 
us  to  forgive. 

It  is  not  every  youthful  folly  that  men  shake  off  when 
they  arrive  at  years  of  discretion.  The  wild  and  incon 
siderate  sallies  of  the  boy  will  often  entail  some  of  the 
worse  features  of  their  character  on  the  man. 

Owing  to  this,  it  is,  that  we  frequently  meet  with  that 
mixed  character  in  the  adult  over  which  humanity  itself 
weeps, — and  we  often  have  occasion  to  observe  the  most 
admirable  talents  and  even  the  most  excellent  disposi 
tion,  in  men,  whose  talents  and  virtues  are  nevertheless 
rendered  abortive  by  some  habitual  indiscretion.  These 
men,  a  well  formed  mind  cannot  fail  to  love; — their 
very  weakness  causing  a  peculiar  kind  of  tenderness  to 


16  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

mix  itself  with  our  love.  But  they  go  out  of  the  world, 
having  excited  its  admiration,  not  added  to  the  stock  of 
good ;  or  their  usefulness,  if  useful  they  have  been,  falls 
infinitely  short  of  that  which  their  great  qualities  would 
have  enabled  them  to  produce. 

Sometimes,  however,  the  ill  consequences  that  remain 
from  the  impressions  of  youthful  follies,  is  much  worse 
than  this.  The  talents  remain,  but  the  character  be 
comes  debauched.  The  men  excite  our  admiration,  but 
we  view  their  powers  with  less  of  hope,  than  terror. 
The  ingenuousness,  the  simplicity  of  a  good  heart,  are 
extinguished.  They  become  crafty  and  deceitful.  Pos 
sessed  with  an  unhallowed  spirit  of  ambition,  the  purity 
and  fervour  of  benevolence  in  them  are  lost.  They  are 
launched  perhaps  upon  the  ocean  of  affairs;  they  mix 
with  the  giddy  scene  of  fashion ;  they  are  initiated  in  all 
the  degrading  arts,  by  which  extravagance  is  supported 
and  sudden  fortune  is  acquired  j  and  they  prey  upon  the 
unwary  and  industrious,  unless  opportunity  and  policy 
should  call  them  to  prey  upon  the  vitals  of  their  country. 

The  evidences  of  correct  demeanor  and  examples  of 
prudence,  during  his  progress  at  the  schools  to  which  he 
had  been  sent  in  his  native  state,  together  with  the  influ 
ence  of  some  of  his  contemporary  associates,  induced 
the  parents  of  young  Macon,  to  give  him  a  collegiate 
education.  All  could  see  and  all  believed  who  were 
acquainted  with  the  character  of  Nathaniel  Macon,  even 
at  that  time,  that  with  proper  opportunities  he  was  bound 
to  be  a  blessing  to  his  parents,  and  at  some  future  day 
an  honor  to  his  then  oppressed  country.  Oppressed  we 
may  say,  because  it  is  conceded  by  historians  of  every 
party,  that  from  the  earliest  settlements  in  America,  to 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  17 

the  period  of  the  revolution,  the  parent  country,  so  far 
as  her  own  unsettled  state  would  permit,  pursued  towards 
those  settlements  a  course  of  direct  oppression.  Besides, 
in  the  settlement  of  the  colonies,  three  forms  of  govern 
ment  were  established.  These  were  severally  denomi- 
natedj  charter,  proprietary,  and  royal  governments.  This 
difference  arose  from  the  different  circumstances  which 
attended  the  settlement  of  the  different  colonies,  and  the 
diversified  views  of  the  early  emigrants.  The  charter 
governments  were  confined  to  New  England.  The  pro 
prietary  government  were  those  of  Maryland,  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  Carolinas,  and  the  Jerseys.  The  two  former 
remained  such,  until  the  American  revolution;  the  two 
latter  became  royal  governments  long  before  that  period. 
From  this  then  it  appears  that  Nathaniel  Macon's  native 
state,  North  Carolina,  was  at  that  time  under  the  royal 
government  of  Great  Britain,  and  undergoing  a  course  of 
arbitrary  exactions  and  lordly  oppressions,  that  render 
ed  it  a  difficult  matter  for  any  private  gentleman,  without 
patronage  from  the  government,  to  accumulate  a  fortune 
sufficient  to  give  his  sons  a  college  education.  The  es 
tate  of  old  Mr.  Macon,  the  father  of  Nathaniel  Macon, 
was  at  that  time  somewhat  limited  from  these  circum 
stances,  and  having  several  other  sons  besides  Nathaniel, 
whom  as  an  impartial  parent  and  as  a  good  man  he  be 
lieved  to  be  equally  entitled  to  the  same  advantages  of  a 
liberal  education,  which  his  pecuniary  situation  debarred 
him  from  bestowing  upon  all,  it  was  a  task  of  no  ordi 
nary  accomplishment,  for  the  friends  of  Nathaniel  to 
pursuade  the  old  man  to  send  him  to  college.  At  length 
however  the  old  man  yielded,  upon  the  promises  of  some 
of  his  neighbours  to  assist  him,  should  he  have  need  of 
2* 


IS  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON, 

any,  to  carry  on  his  education;  and  Princeton  College, 
New  Jersey,  was  the  one  fixed  upon  to  which  young 
Nathaniel  was  to  be  sent. 

It  is  something  to  be  remarked,  that  if  one  after  he 
has  arrived  to  the  age  of  manhood  should  give  evidences 
of  uncommon  talents,  it  is  immediately  supposed  that 
he  has  been  through  life  an  extraordinary  creature  ;  that 
the  stamp  of  divinity  was  upon  him ;  that  a  circle  of  glor}r, 
invisible  to  profaner  eyes,  surrounded  his  head,  and  that 
every  action  he  breathed  contained  an  indication  of  his 
elevated  destiny.  That  a  man  brings  a  certain  character 
into  the  world  with  him,  is  a  point  that  must  readily  be 
conceded.  And  the  reason  why  we  are  so  apt  to  impute 
the  intellectual  differences  of  men  to  some  cause  operat 
ing  prior  to  their  birth,  is  that  we  are  so  little  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  the  early  years  of  men  of  talents. 
Slight  circumstances  at  first  determined  their  propensities 
to  this,  or  that  pursuit, — and  when  the  early  life  of  a  man 
of  talents  can  be  accurately  traced,  these  circumstances 
generally  present  themselves  to  our  observation.  If  we 
will  examine  the  private  memoirs  of  Gibbon  the  historian, 
we  will  be  able  to  trace  with  considerable  accuracy  the 
progress  of  his  mind.  While  he  was  at  college,  he  be 
came  reconciled  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  By  this 
circumstance  he  incurred  his  father's  displeasure,  who 
banished  him  to  an  obscure  situation  in  Switzerland 
where  he  was  obliged  to  live  upon  a  scanty  provision, 
and  was  far  removed  from  all  the  customary  amuse 
ments  of  men  of  birth  and  fortune.  If  this  train  of  cir 
cumstances  had  not  taken  place,  would  he  ever  have 
been  the  historian  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  19 

Empire  ?  Yet  how  unusual  were  his  attainments  in 
consequence  of  these  events,  in  learning,  in  acuteness 
of  research,  and  intuition  of  genius.  May  it  not  be  said 
that  the  unexampled  assurance  of  what  would  be  his 
progress  at  college,  from  his  previous  conduct  and  success 
at  the  other  schools  to  which  he  had  gone,  was  the  only 
circumstance  which  inclined  Nathaniel  Macon's  friends 
to  influence  the  old  man  to  give  him  a  college  education. 
And  that  this  circumstance  alone  had  the  only  direct 
bearing  in  making  Nathaniel  Macon  that  which  he  after 
wards  became  the  man  of  talents,  usefulness  and  patri 
otism, — as  was  the  reconciliation  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion,  whilst  at  college,  the  circumstance,  which  ban 
ished  Gibbon  to  an  obscure  retreat  in  Switzerland,  and 
caused  him  to  become  the  historian  of  the  decline  and 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Every  preparation  being  made  the  day  was  fixed  upon, 
for  Nathaniel's  departure, — on  which  day  the  friends 
and  relations  in  his  neighbourhood  met  at  his  father's  to 
take  their  leave  and  witness  the  separation  between  him 
and  his  parents.  For  it  was  not  in  those  days  as  it  is  at 
present  so  small  a  matter  to  take  a  trip  across  the  conti 
nent  through  the  conveniences  of  rail-roads,  steam-boats 
Sec., — but  a  journey  from  North  Carolina  to  Princeton 
was  really  a  subject  for  serious  consideration,  both  as  re 
garded  the  expences  as  well  as  other  difficulties  attend 
ing  it.  Besides  there  was  so  little  travelling  carried  on, 
that  when  one  was  about  to  leave  his  home  to  be  absent 
for  any  length  of  time,  it  was  part  of  the  fellowship  of 
neighbours  and  friends  to  assemble  on  the  occasion  to 
sympathise  with  the  relations  and  to  inquire  whether 


20  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

any  assistance  was  needed,  and  to  take  a  pleasure  in  ren 
dering  it  if  necessary.  A  further  account  of  his  actual 
departure  being  unnecessary,  we  shall  here  take  our  leave 
of  the  reader  until  the  next  chapter,  when  we  shall  find 
Nathaniel  safely  arrived  at  the  place  of  his  destination* 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  21 


CHAPTER  III. 

IT  has  been  found  in  the  history  of  seveial  eminent 
men,  as  we  observed  in  the  last  chapter,  and  probably 
would  have  been  found  much  oftener,  had  their  juvenile 
adventures  been  more  accurately  recorded ;  that  the  most 
trivial  circumstances  has  sometimes  furnished  the  origi 
nal  occasion  of  awakening  the  ardour  of  their  minds  and 
determining  the  bent  of  their  studies. 

It  was  the  plan  of  many  of  the  Grecian  Philosophers, 
and  particularly  one  of  them,  to  show  to  mankind  how 
very  limited  was  the  supply  that  our  necessities  required, 
and  how  little  dependent  our  real  welfare  and  prosperity 
were  upon  the  caprice  of  others.  Among  innumerable 
incidents  upon  record  that  illustrates  this  principle,  a  sin 
gle  one  may  suffice  to  suggest  to  our  minds  its  general 
spirit.  Diogenes  had  a  slave  whose  name  was  Menas, 
and  Menas  thought  proper  upon  some  occasion  to  elope. 
"Ha!"  said  the  philosopher,  "can  Menas  live  without 
Diogenes  and  cannot  Diogenes  live  without  Menas."  It 
was  with  this  spirit  of  fortitude  and  independence,  that 
young  Macon,  separated  from  his  parents  and  friends ; — 
it  was  with  this  spirit  he  was  supported  on  his  way  to 
Princeton,  in  reflecting  upon  those  friendships  and  plea 
sures,  of  his  youth,  once  dear  to  him  as  life,  but  now 
past  and  gone,  were  soon  to  be  forgotten.  And  it  was 
with  this  spirit  he  entered  into,  and  become  acquainted 


**  LIFE  OF  NATHAiSIEL  MACON. 

with  all  the  ceremonials  of  the  college  and  its  inmates 
on  his  arrival.  To  a  mind  like  his,  needing  but  little 
foreign  aid  to  assist  its  energies,  the  lesson  conveyed  by 
this  separation  from  all  his  friends  and  relations,  and 
placed  as  we  may  say  amidst  a  people  of  new  manners, 
new  customs,  and  in  many  particulars  different  laws, 
must  have  been  truly  important,  and  have  taught  him  at 
this  early  period,  that,  that  man  is  incapable  of  incon 
stant  and  inflexible  virtue  that  does  not  known  himself 
not  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  other  men, — that  does  not  feel 
that  he  is  invulnerable  to  all  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune. 
It  must  have  taught  him  that  he,  to  whom  the  rest  of  his 
species  can  reasonably  look  up  with  confidence,  must  be 
firm,  because  his  mind  is  filled  with  the  excellence  of 
the  object  he  pursues;  and  cheerful  because  he  knows 
that  it  is  out  of  the  power  of  events  to  injure  him, — and 
that  no  man  can  be  entitled  to  our  confidence,  who  trem 
bles  at  every  wind ;  who  can  endure  no  adversity,  and 
whose  very  existence  is  linked  to  the  artificial  character 
he  sustains. 

Nothing  can  more  reasonably  excite  our  contempt, 
than  a  man  who,  if  he  was  once  reduced  to  the  genuine 
and  simple  condition  of  man,  would  be  driven  to  des 
pair,  and  find  himself  incapable  of  consulting  and  provid 
ing  for  his  own  subsistence.  Fortitude  is  a  habit  of  mind 
that  grows  out  of  a  sense  of  our  own  independence.  If 
there  be  a  man,  who  does  not  even  trust  his  own  imagi 
nation  with  the  fancied  change  of  his  circumstances,  he 
must  necessarily  be  effeminate  and  irresolute.  Till  we 
are  acquainted  with  the  meaning  of  terms  and  the  nature 
of  the  objects  around  us,  we  cannot  understand  the  pro 
positions  that  may  be  formed  concerning  them.  Till  we 


LIFE  OF  NATHAN7IEL  MACON.  23 

are  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  objects  around  us, 
we  cannot  compare  them  with  the  principles  we  have 
formed,  and  undertake  the  modes  of  employing  them. 
There  are  other  ways  to  be  sure  of  attaining  wisdom 
and  abilities,  besides  the  school  of  adversity,  but  there  is 
no  way  of  attaining  them  but  through  the  medium  of 
experience.  That  is,  experience  brings  in  the  materials 
with  which  intellect  works ;  for  it  must  be  granted  that 
a  man  of  limited  experience  will  often  be  more  capable 
than  he  who  has  gone  through  the  greatest  variety  of 
scenes ;  or  rather  perhaps,  that  one  man  may  collect 
more  experience  in  a  sphere  of  a  few  miles  square,  than 
another  who  has  sailed  round  the  world.  Nathaniel 
Macon  was  well  acquainted  with  these  principles  and 
had  long  before  this  period  of  his  life,  intimately  exam 
ined  into  the  very  nature  of  the  mind  of  man;  he  ob 
served  it  for  himself,  and  observed  it  in  its  greatest  vari 
ety  of  situations.  He  had  seen  it  without  disguise,  when 
no  exterior  situation  puts  a  curb  upon  its  passions,  and 
induces  the  individual  to  exhibit  a  studied,  not  a  sponta 
neous  character.  He  had  seen  persons  in  their  unguard 
ed  moments,  when  the  eagerness  of  temporary  resent 
ment  tips  their  tongue  with  fire,  when  they  were  ani 
mated  and  dilated  by  hope,  when  they  were  tortured  and 
anatomised  by  despair,  when  the  soul  pours  out  its  in 
most  self  into  the  bosom  of  an  equal  and  a  friend.  Last 
ly,  he  had  often  himself  been  an  actor  in  the  scene,  had 
his  own  passions  brought  into  play,  and  known  the  anx 
iety  of  expectation,  and  the  transport  of  success.  With 
such  preliminary  preparations  of  mind,  how  much  better 
qualified  must  he  have  been  to  receive  the  education  of 
the  true  philosopher,  the  genuine  politician,  the  friend 


24  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON* 

and  benefactor  of  human  kind,  than  one  of  those  sons  of 
the  nabobs  of  his  country,  the  first  step  of  whose  parents 
in  their  education,  is  the  extreme  tenderness  of  their 
persons.  The  winds  of  heaven  not  being  permitted  to 
blow  upon  them,  from  their  infancy.  Dressed  and  un 
dressed  by  lacqueys  and  valets.  Their  wants  carefully 
anticipated,  their  desires  without  any  effort  on  their  part 
profusely  supplied,  Their  health  of  too  much  import 
ance  to  permit  them  to  exert  any  considerable  effort 
either  of  body  or  mind.  Whose  ears  never  hear  the 
voice  of  repremand  or  blame.  In  all  things,  the  first  to 
be  remembered,  that  he  is  the  son  of  a  gentleman  of  for 
tune;  that  is,  some  rare  and  precious  creature,  far  above 
the  rest  of  his  species.  And  as  he  is  the  heir  to  an  es 
tate  more  than  the  most  of  his  fellows,  it  is  never  forgot 
ten  by  those  about  him,  that  considerable  importance  is 
to  be  annexed  to  his  favour  or  his  displeasure.  Accord 
ingly  they  never  express  themselves  in  his  presence 
frankly  and  naturally,  either  respecting  him  or  them 
selves.  They  play  around  him  altogether  under  a  mask, 
at  the  same  time  anxious  to  appear  generous,  disinterest 
ed  and  sincere.  All  his  caprices  are  to  be  complied  with. 
All  his  gratifications  are  to  be  studied.  From  his  hab 
its,  they  find  him  a  depraved  and  sordid  mortal,  and  the 
gratifications  they  recommend  serve  to  sink  him  deeper 
in  folly  and  vice. 

What  is  the  result  of  such  an  education  ?  Having 
never  experienced  contradiction,  such  a  young  man  is 
always  arrogant  and  presumptuous.  Having  always 
been  accustomed  to  the  slaves  of  necessity,  or  the  slaves 
of  choice,  he  does  not  understand  even  the  meaning  of 
the  word  freedom.  His  temper  is  insolent,  and  impatient 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  25 

of  parley  and  expostulation.  Knowing  nothing,  he  be« 
lieves  himself  sovereignly  informed,  and  runs  head-long 
into  danger,  not  from  firmness  and  courage,  but  from  the 
most  egregious  wilfulness  and  vanity.  Like  Pyrrho 
among  the  ancient  philosophers,  if  his  attendants  were 
at  a  distance,  and  he  trusted  himself  alone  in  the  open 
air.  he  would  perhaps  be  run  over  by  the  next  coach  or 
fall  down  the  first  precipice. 

His  violence  and  presumption  are  strikingly  contrast 
ed  with  the  extreme  timidity  of  his  disposition.  The 
first  opposition  terrifies  him  ;  the  first  difficulty  seen  and 
understood,  appears  insuperable.  He  trembles  at  a  sha 
dow,  and  at  the  very  semblance  of  adversity  is  dissolved 
into  tears.  Above  all,  simple  and  unqualified  truth  is  a 
stranger  to  his  ear.  It  either  never  approaches ;  or  if  so 
unexpected  a  guest  should  once  appear,  it  meets  with  so 
cold  a  reception,  as  to  afford  little  encouragement  to  a 
second  visit.  The  longer  he  has  been  accustomed  to 
falsehood  and  flattery,  the  more  grating  will  it  sound. 
The  longer  he  has  been  accustomed  to  falshood  and  flat 
tery,  the  more  terrible  will  the  task  appear  to  him,  to 
change  his  tastes,  and  discard  his  favourites.  He  will 
either  place  a  blind  confidence  in  all  men,  or,  having 
detected  the  insincerity  of  those  who  are  most  agreeable 
to  him,  will  conclude  that  all  men  are  knavish  and  de 
signing.  As  a  consequence  of  this  last  opinion,  he  will 
become  indifferent  to  mankind,  callous  to  their  sufferings, 
and  will  believe  that  even  the  virtuous  are  knaves  under 
a  craftier  mask. 

In  this  picture,  are  indeed  contained  all  those  features 
which  obviously  constitute  the  early  education  of  most 
of  the  young  men  of  birth  and  fortune  of  our  country. 
3 


26  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  UACOK* 

In  real  life  it  will  be  variously  modified,  but  the  majority 
of  the  features,  unless  in  very  rare  instances,  will  remain 
the  same.  And  in  no  case  can  the  education  of  a  friend 
and  benefactor  of  human  kinds,  as  sketched  in  a  preced 
ing  page,  by  any  speculative  contrivance,  be  communi 
cated  to  them. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  £7 


CHAPTER  IV. 

To  obtain  honor  at  court,  it  is  thought  neccessary  to 
pay  a  servile  court  to  the  men  in  power,  to  bear  with 
unaltered  patience,  their  contumely  and  scorn,  to  flatter 
their  vices,  and  render  ourselves  useful  to  their  private 
gratifications.  The  true  courtier  must  arrive  at  such  a 
proficiency  in  his  art,  as  to  have  neither  passions  nor 
attachments  of  his  own.  Personal  kindness  and  all  con 
siderations  for  the  merit  of  others,  must  be  swallowed 
up  in  a  narrow  and  sordid  ambition,  not  that  generous 
ambition  for  the  esteem  of  mankind,  which  reflect  a 
sort  of  splendor  upon  vice  itself,  but  an  ambition  of  sel 
fish  gratification  and  illiberal  intrigue. 

Such  is  not  the  process  to  acquire  college  honors;  by 
college  honors,  we  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  those 
A.  B.'s  and  M.  A.'s  that  may  be  so  highly  prized  by  the 
fashionable  part  of  the  literary  world  ; — No.  We  look 
upon  these  as  mere  adventitous  circumstances, — the 
glittering  evidences  of  things  unseen,  and  in  many  in 
stances  do  not  exist, — and  believe  that  they  are  the  ap 
pendages  of  many  who  the  least  deserve  them.  We 
have  too  often  detected  such  impositions  ever  to  be 
again  deceived  by  them.  But  the  college  honors  which 
Nathaniel  Macon  was  now  to  acquire,  was  that  character 
which  a  young  man  soon  attains  after  his  first  initiation 
into  any  college.  The  character  of  attending  to  his 


28  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

studies,  be  them  whatever  they  may  assigned  him,  and 
his  proficiency  in  which,  always  procures  him.  These 
duties  we  may  naturally  infer  from  his  experience  and 
the  previous  character  we  have  given  him,  he  dischar 
ged  with  so  much  promptness,  fidelity  and  ability,  it  not 
only  soon  procured  him  the  love,  favour  and  notice  of 
all  his  tutors,  but  likewise  the  friendship,  respect,  and 
confidence  of  all  his  collegiates. 

It  was  never  Nathaniel  Macon's  ambition  from  his  boy 
hood  to  claim  a  superiority  over  any  of  his  associates.  He 
recognized  no  distinctions  in  society,  but  what  merit 
gave.  He  believed  for  the  most  part  there  was  no  es 
sential  difference  between  the  child  of  the  lord  and 
the  porter;  provided  he  does  not  come  into  the  world 
inflicted  with  any  ruinous  distemper,  the  child  of  the 
lord  if  changed  in  the  cradle,  would  scarcely  find  any 
greater  difficulty  than  the  other,  in  learning  the  trade  of 
his  foster  father  and  becoming  a  carrier  of  burthens. 

This  truth  will  be  brought  to  our  minds  with  much  ad 
ditional  evidence,  if  we  compare  in  this  respect  the  case 
of  brutes  with  that  of  men.  Among  inferior  animals, 
breed  is  a  circumstance  of  considerable  importance,  and 
a  judicious  mixture  and  preservation  in  this  point  is 
found  to  be  attended  with  the  most  unequivocal  results. 
But  nothing  of  that  kind  appears  to  take  place  in  our 
own  species.  A  generous  blood,  a  gallant  and  fearless 
spirit  is  by  no  means  propagated  from  father  to  son. 
When  a  particular  appellation  is  granted,  as  is  usually 
practised  in  the  existing  governments  of  Europe,  to 
designate  the  descendants  of  a  magnanimous  ancestry, 
we  do  not  find  even  with  all  the  arts  of  modern  educa 
tion  to  assist,  that  such  descendants  are  the  legitimate 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

representatives  of  departed  heroism.  With  this  re 
publican  principle  deeply  impressed  upon  his  mind, 
which  he  always  acted  out  boldly, — it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted,  his  deportment  was  such  as  to  have  insured  the 
universal  respect  of  all  classes  at  college  as  soon  as  they 
become  acquainted  with  him.  And  being  above  those 
little  meannesses  practised  sometimes  by  young  men  at 
those  institutions  for  ascendency,  none  ever  associated 
with  him,  but  felt  as  if  they  were  in  company  with  their 
equal,  if  not  their  superior. 

Nathaniel  Macon  was  a  student  at  Princeton  Col 
lege  in  the  ever  memorable  year  of  1776,  and  though 
it  was  thought  at  the  commencement  of  our  revolu 
tion,  by  numerous  individuals,  whose  talents,  wisdom 
and  enterprise  were  necessary  to  its  success,  that  they 
could  derive  but  little  if  any  advantage, — that  instead 
of  gain  they  would  be  subjected  to  great  loss  and 
suffering ;  that  the  comforts  of  their  families  would 
be  abridged,  that  their  property  wrould  be  destroyed ; 
their  farms  desolated ;  their  houses  plundered  or  con 
sumed  ;  their  sons  might  fall  in  the  field  of  battle ; 
and  should  the  struggle  be  vain,  an  ignominious  death 
would  be  their  portion.  Yet  burning  with  ardour  and 
fixed  with  holy  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  public  liber 
ty,  he  abandoned  his  collegiate  studies,  and  performed 
a  short  tour  of  duty  in  a  company  of  volunteers.  Thus 
in  his  youth  evincing  an  attachment  to  those  principles 
which  in  after  life  he  supported  with  so  much  firmness, 
ability,  and  undeviating  consistency. 

The  history  of  the  world  cannot  furnish  an  instance  in 
which  there  was  a  nobler  exhibition  of  true  patriotism 
than  is  presented  in  the  history  of  the  American  revolu- 
3* 


30  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tion.  The  contest  respected  rights  which  God  had  giv 
en  them ;  it  respected  liberty,  that  dearest  and  noblest 
privilege  of  man ;  it  respected  the  happiness  of  genera 
tions  yet  to  succeed  each  other,  on  this  spacious  conti 
nent,  to  the  end  of  time.  Such  considerations  influenced 
the  patriots  of  the  revolution.  Nathaniel  Macon  with 
the  rest  of  his  countrymen  thought  comparatively  little 
of  himself  in  this  struggle,  his  views  being  fixed  on  the 
happiness  of  others,  and  future  glory  of  his  country. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  aggression  of  the  British 
ministry  upon  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  he  perceived, 
that  the  only  alternative  of  the  latter  would  be  a  resort 
to  arms  or  absolute  slavery.  He  wras  not  of  a  disposi 
tion  to  be  as  easily  roused  to  adopt  strong  measures,  as 
some  others,  still  he  was  not  backward  to  express  his 
abhorrence  of  the  unjust  conduct  of  the  mother  country, 
nor  to  enter  upon  any  well  matured  system  of  opposition 
to  her  designs.  And  though  at  this  time,  but  a  youth 
of  eighteen  or  nineteen  years,  there  were  few  men  in  the 
community,  who  felt  more  intensely  each  succeeding 
month  the  magnitude  of  the  subject,  and  w^ho  were 
more  and  more  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  an  united 
and  firm  opposition  to  the  British  government.  He  was 
particularly  disgusted  with  the  stamp-act.  Not  that  he 
feared  pecuniary-loss  from  its  exactions,  it  was  an  incon 
siderable  tax ;  but  trifling  as  it  was,  involved  a  principle 
of  the  greatest  importance.  It  gave  to  the  crown  a 
power  over  the  colonies,  against  the  arbitrary  exercise  of 
which  they  had  no  security.  They  had,  in  truth,  upon 
the  principles  claimed  by  the  British  government,  little 
or  no  control  over  their  own  property.  It  might  be 
taxed  in  the  manner  and  to  the  extent,  which  parliament 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  31 

pleased,  and  not  a  single  representative  from  the  colonies 
could  raise  his  voice  in  their  behalf.  It  was  fortunate 
for  the  Americans,  that  they  understood  their  own  rights, 
and  had  the  courage  to  assert  them  ;  for  just  as  was  the 
cause  of  the  colonies,  it  was  doubtful  how  the  contest 
would  terminate.  The  chance  of  eventual  success  was 
against  them.  Less  than  three  millions  of  people  con 
stituted  their  population,  and  these  were  scattered  over 
a  widely  extended  territory.  They  were  divided  into 
colonies,  which  had  no  political  character,  and  no  other 
bond  of  union  than  common  sufferings,  common  danger, 
and  common  necessities.  They  had  no  veteran  army, 
no  navy,  no  arsenal  filled  with  munitions  of  war,  and  no 
fortifications  on  their  extended  coast.  They  had  no  over 
flowing  treasuries,  but  in  the  outset,  were  to  depend  up 
on  loans,  taxation,  and  voluntary  contributions. 

Thus  circumstanced,  could  success  in  such  a  contest 
be  reasonably  anticipated?  Could  they  hope  to  com 
pete  with  the  parent  country,  whose  strength  was  con 
solidated  by  the  lapse  of  centuries,  and  to  whose  wealth 
and  power  so  many  millions  contributed  ?  A  country 
directing  in  a  great  measure  the  destinies  of  Europe, 
her  influence  extended  to  every  quarter  of  the  world, 
Her  armies  were  trained  to  the  art  of  war,  her  navy 
rode  in  triumph  on  every  sea,  her  statesmen  subtle  and 
sagacious,  her  generals  skilful  and  practised.  And  more 
than  all,  her  pride  was  aroused,  by  the  fact,  that  all  Eu 
rope  was  a  spectator  of  the  scene,  and  was  urging  her 
forward  to  vindicate  the  policy  she  had  adopted,  and 
the  principles  she  had  advanced. 

But  what  will  not  union  and  firmness,  valour   and 
patriotism,  accomplish  ?     What  will  not  faith  accomplish  ? 


32  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

The  colonies  were  indeed  aware  of  the  crisis  at  which 
they  had  arrived.  They  saw  the  precipice  upon  which 
they  stood.  National  existence  was  at  stake.  Life  and 
liberty,  and  peace,  were  at  hazard ;  not  only  those  of 
the  generation  which  then  existed,  but  of  the  unnum 
bered  millions  which  were  yet  to  be  born.  To  heaven 
they  could  with  pious  confidence  make  their  solemn  ap 
peal.  They  trusted  in  the  arm  of  Him,  who  had  plan 
ted  their  fathers  in  this  distant  land,  and  besought  Him 
to  guide  the  men,  who  in  his  providence  were  called  to 
preside  over  their  public  councils. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  33 


CHAPTER    V. 

NATHANIEL  MACON  had  to  leave  college  before  he 
completed  his  education;  whether  from  the  unsettled  and 
troublesome  condition  in  which  the  revolution  had  invol 
ved  the  country,  or  the  pecuniary  situation  of  his  father, 
or  both,  we  are  not  informed.  One  thing  is  certain  it 
was  not  on  account  of  any  conduct  of  his  own — for  on 
leaving,  he  sustained  a  high  reputation,  not  only  in  res 
pect  to  his  classical  attainments,  and  knowledge  of  those 
sciences,  which  with  his  usual  industry  for  improvement 
were  to  constitute  him  an  useful  man  to  his  country 
hereafter;  but  for  many  virtues  which  adorned  his  char 
acter  during  his  whole  residence  at  Princeton. 

There  is  no  period  of  a  young  man's  life  that  is  frought 
with  half  so  many  dangers,  and  for  the  most  part  so 
much  determines  the  character  of  the  future  man,  as 
when  he  first  becomes  master  of  his  own  actions,  and 
chooses  his  avocations  and  associates.  He  will  necessa 
rily  become  acquainted  with  many  things  of  which  be 
fore  he  had  very  slender  notions.  At  this  time  the  fol 
lies  of  the  world  wear  their  most  alluring  face.  He  can 
scarcely  avoid  imagining  that  he  has  laboured  under 
some  species  of  delusion.  There  is,  and  always  will  be 
a  numerous  class  of  young  men  at  this  period  of  life, 
who  though  rich  with  brilliant  talents  and  sublime  vir- 


34  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

tues,  with  affability,  superior  polish  and  elegance  of  man 
ners,  have  a  secret  consciousness,  as  they  imagine,  that 
they  possess  nothing  by  which  they  can  so  securely  as 
sert  their  preeminence  and  keep  their  inferiors  at  a  dis 
tance,  as  the  splendour  of  their  equipage,  the  magnifi 
cence  of  their  retinue  and  the  sumptuousness  of  their 
entertainments.  The  only  chance  which  remains  for 
this  misstep ;  is,  that  after  a  time,  they  may  be  recalled 
and  awakened  by  some  accidental  circumstance  ;  and 
against  this  chance,  there  are  the  progressive  enticements 
of  society ;  sensuality,  ambition,  sordid  interest,  false 
ridicule,  and  the  incessant  decay  of  that  unblemished 
purity,  which  attended  them  in  their  outset.  The  best 
that  can  be  expected,  is,  that  they  should  return  at  last 
to  sobriety  and  truth,  with  a  mind  hackneyed  and  relax 
ed  by  repeated  errors,  and  a  moral  constitution  in  which 
the  seeds  of  debility  have  been  widely  and  irretrievably 
sown, — and  the  natural  and  wholesome  complexion  of 
their  minds  much  defaced  if  not  totally  destroyed. 

Imperfectly  do  they  judge,  who  judge  of  real  happi 
ness  or  misery  from  external  appearance.  They  will 
ever  be  seduced  and  deceived  by  that  false  glare  which 
prosperity  throws  around  bad  men,  and  will  be  tempted 
to  imitate  their  crimes,  in  order  to  partake  of  their  im 
agined  felicity.  The  pageant  of  grandeur,  displayed  to 
public  view,  they  will  be  convinced  too  late,  is  not  the 
ensign  of  certain  happiness.  They  should  recollect 
hood-winked  by  pleasure,  the  strong  man  himself,  never 
saw  any  object  clearly,  after  he  went  to  Gaza.  For  on 
laying  his  head  in  the  lap  of  voluptuousness,  his  wit 
evaporated,  his  wisdom  turned  babbler,  he  lost  his  vigi- 
lence,  his  eyes  and  his  life.  He  could  not  see  the  sev*» 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  35 

en  locks  of  his  head,  scattered  on  the  toilet  of  a  woman. 
The  scissors  of  the  gipsey  proved  sharper  than  the  sword 
of  his  enemies  ;  and  the  flowing  hair  of  the  hero,  once 
covered  with  laurels,  was  now  tortured  into  meretricious 
ringlets  or  perewigs  for  some  pimp  in  Delilah's  anti- 
chamber. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  lamented,  genius  js  invariably  con 
nected  with  strong  passions.  When  men  exquisitely 
organized,  indulge  pleasure,  it  is  with  that  species  of 
fervour,  which  is  never  the  associate  of  dullness ;  it  is 
with  all  their  hearts,  and  all  their  souls,  and  with  all 
their  strength  and  with  all  their  mind.  The  insensible 
lounger,  the  self-engrossed  coxcomb,  may  sleep  upon 
the  knees  of  a  Delilah,  and  awake  again  to  puny  life. 
But  of  that  opiate  of  joy,  of  that  golden  cup  of  abomi 
nation,  which  the  harlot  presents,  if  the  man  of  feeling 
once  sips,  he  will,  "drain  the  chalice  to  the  lowest  and 
foulest  dregs;"  though  it  is  to  conduct  him  to  some  vale 
of  Sorek,  beneath  whose  roses  are  the  serpent  and  the 
dagger,  that  awaits  his  ruin. 

The  frailty  of  youth  often  gives  way  to  vicious  habits, 
which  extend  their  influence  to  the  remotest  scenes  of 
life.  Like  characters  engraved  on  the  tender  bark, 
which  open  and  appear  more  plain  as  the  tree  grows 
larger,  these  habits  will  have  a  more  palpable  and  be 
coming  appearance  as  near  approaches  are  made  to  the 
closing  scenes  of  life.  It  must  certainly  be  the  wish  of 
every  rational  creature  to  spend  the  latter  part  of  their 
days  with  satisfaction  and  comfort.  This  can  never  be 
the  case  unless  an  attentive  regard  be  paid  to  the  con 
duct  in  the  first  part  of  the  drama ;  to  see  that  every 
thing  may  be  properly  carried  on  ; — for  a  young  man  of 


36  LIFE    OP   NATHANIEL   MACON. 

irregularities  entails  misery  on  old  age,  renders  it  a  bur 
den  to  itself  and  to  others;  and  an  object  of  pity  and 
disgust. 

Improvement  of  the  mind,  has  ever  been  observed  by 
the  judicious  to  be  one  of  the  noblest  employments  of 
an  intelligent  being ; — not  only  because  this  part  consti 
tutes  the  true  dignity  of  man  ;  but  because  by  such 
pursuits,  the  rational  being  receives  the  most  sublime 
and  permanent  ideas.  To  see  the  fatal  effects,  arising 
for  the  want  of  rightly  improving  the  mental  powers, — 
cast  our  eyes  upon  the  human  race,  and  take  a  view  of 
certain  societies  and  individuals, — among  men.  Behold 
the  tawny  savage ; — to  what  cause  shall  we  impute  his 
inhuman  cruelties  and  want  of  sensibility  ?  Is  it  not  to 
this?  His  not  cultivating  and  calling  into  exercise  the 
softer  feelings  of  the  soul. 

View  the  intemperate  and  infamous  course  of  the 
debauchee,  which  sinks  him  below  the  common  herd  of 
the  plain.  And  why !  Because  his  reason  sacrificed  to 
his  passions,  and  his  passions  controled  his  appetites. 

Why  does  the  griping  miser  live  an  hermit,  and  pine 
away  over  his  delicious  hoard  ?  Because  blinded  by  ig 
norance  and  sordid  passion,  he  views  the  means  of  hap 
piness  as  the  object  itself.  By  the  auspicious  aid  of  ed 
ucation  the  mind  is  freed  from  these  baneful  effects ;  it 
is  the  influence  of  its  beams,  which  nourishes  the  young 
and  tender  plants,  and  brings  them  to  maturity.  To  its 
shrine  we  may  fly  for  redress  of  the  many  ill  constructed 
and  effeminate  ideas  instamped  upon  our  minds  from  our 
early  infancy,  and  under  its  protection  improve  the  ta 
lents  put  into  our  hands,  in  a  manner  which  shall  be 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  37 

most  conducive  to  our  own  interest  and  beneficial  to 
the  community. 

Education  in  one  sense,  is  the  affair  of  youth,  but  in 
a  stricter  and  more  accurate  sense,  the  education  of  an 
intellectual  being  can  terminate  only  with  life.  Every 
incident  that  befalls  us  is  the  parent  of  a  sentiment,  and 
either  confirms  or  counteracts  the  pre-conceptions  of  the 
mind. 

Nathaniel  Macon,  differing  from  most  young  men,  and 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  latter  senti 
ment,  on  his  return  home  to  his  native  state,  immedi 
ately  turned  his  attention  to  the  acquisition  of  a  store  of 
political  knowledge,  which  with  an  activity  of  observa 
tion,  and  a  certainty  of  judgment,  he  was  soon  to  turn 
to  the  very  best  account.  He  made  himself  well  ac 
quainted  both  with  the  history  and  constitution  of  the 
mother  country  and  his  own,  and  studied  with  almost 
professional  accuracy  the  elements  of  law  as  a  science. 

In  his  person,  at  this  time,  he  was  above  the  middle 
size,  and  of  a  florid  but  fair  complexion,  and  carried  in 
his  appearance  the  indications  of  a  sound  frame  and  an 
easy  mind.  No  man  of  more  symetry  of  form,  or  more 
activity  and  strength  of  his  weight.  With  a  keen,  sen 
sible,  penetrating  blue  eye,  and  a  countenance  express 
ing  great  animation  and  at  the  same  time  deep  thought, 
constituting  an  intelligent  and  benevolent  aspect,  that 
caused  him  to  be  universally  admired. 

His  manners  remarkably  plain  and  easy,  and  might  be 
thought  by  some  to  border  on  bluntness,  yet  they  had 
their  charms  in  an  eminent  degree  upon  those  who  were 
in  his  company.  They  appeared  to  be  the  manners  of  a 
just  man ;  of  one  who  knew  no  disguise,  or  of  a  gene- 
4 


38  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON, 

rous  spirit  that  scorned  to  practice  duplicity.  He  looked 
as  if  he  could  speak  to  the  proudest  despot  upon  earth, 
with  a  consciousness  that  he  was  speaking  to  a  man,  and 
a  determination  to  yield  him  no  superiority  to  which  his 
inherent  qualifications  did  not  entitle  him.  Notwith 
standing  all  this,  his  conversation  was  very  agreeable, 
and  had  in  it  a  conciliatory  attraction,  which  had  fre 
quently  the  effect  of  subduing  the  prejudices  of  those 
with  whom  he  conversed ;  and  which  seldom  failed  to 
/ncrease  the  ardour  and  inflexibility  of  steady  friends. 
He  took  so  lively  an  interest  in  every  thing  that  con 
cerned  those  around  him,  that  each  of  them  believed 
himself  a  favourite,  whilst  he  was  only  the  common  friend 
of  them  all.  His  observations  were  often  original ;  and 
when  otherwise,  far  from  insipid, — for  as  has  been  said 
of  the  late  Dr.  Rush  of  Philadelphia,  "  he  had  an  un 
common  way  of  expressing  common  thoughts."  His 
language  was  simple  and  always  intelligible,  and  his 
method  so  judicious,  that  a  consistent  view  of  the  sub 
ject  was  always  communicated,  and  the  recollection  ren 
dered  easy,  and  generally  so  full  of  anecdote  and  illus 
tration,  that  his  hearers  carried  away  with  them  some 
thing  worth  recollecting.  Disdaining  the  pride  of  pow 
er, — dispising  hypocrisy,  as  the  lowest  and  meanest 
vice, — with  an  honest  simplicity,  and  Roman  frankness 
of  manners,  he  gave  to  intercourse  an  ease  and  freedom 
which  made  his  society  and  conversation  sought  after  by 
all  who  knew  him.  Such  is  a  description  of  Nathaniel 
Macon's  person  and  manners  and  general  bearing  in  so 
ciety,  on  his  arrival  home  from  New  Jersey. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  loss  of  Charleston,  in  South  Carolina,  by  general 
Lincoln,  on  the  4th  of  May,  1780,  excited  a  considera 
ble  alarm  in  America  about  this  time  ;  and  their  popular 
writers,  particularly  the  author  of  the  celebrated  per 
formance,  entitled  Common  Sense,  in  some  other  pieces, 
made  use  of  it  as  a  powerful  argument  to  lead  them  to 
more  vigorous  exertions  against  Great  Britain,  that  they 
might  the  more  effectually  and  certainly  secure  their  inde 
pendence.  Whether  Nathaniel  Macon's  participation  in 
this  excitement,  which  was  so  general  among  his  coun 
trymen  at  the  time,  or  his  real  patriotism,  induced  him 
to  believe  his  country  stood  in  actual  need  of  his  per 
sonal  services,  notwithstanding  he  was  thus  engaged  in 
preparing  himself  for  future  usefulness,  as  mentioned  in 
a  previous  chapter,  he  immediately  joined  the  militia 
troops  of  his  native  state  as  a  common  soldier,  and  con 
tinued  with  them  till  the  provisional  articles  for  peace 
were  signed  at  Paris,  on  the  30th  of  November,  1782. 

Long  before  this,  and  whilst  he  was  at  college  in  New 
Jersey,  the  royal  governor,  Martin,  of  his  native  state, 
North  Carolina,  on  a  charge  of  attempting  to  raise  the 
back  settlers,  consisting  chiefly  of  Scotch  Highlanders, 
against  the  colony,  had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  pro 
vince  and  take  refuge  on  board  of  a  man  of  war.  And 
though  in  this  situation  he  did  not  despair  of  reducing 


40  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

it  again  to  obedience.  For  this  purpose  he  applied  to 
the  regulators,  a  daring  set  of  banditti,  who  lived  in  a 
kind  of  independent  state;  and  though  considered  by 
government  as  rebels,  yet  had  never  been  molested  on 
account  of  their  numbers,  and  known  skill  in  the  use  of 
fire  arms.  To  the  chiefs  of  these  people  the  governor 
sent  commissioners  in  order  to  raise  some  regiments  ; 
and  a  colonel  McDonald  was  appointed  to  command 
them.  He  erected  the  king's  standard,  issued  proclama 
tions,  &c.,  and  collected  some  forces,  expecting  to  be 
soon  joined  by  a  body  of  regular  troops,  who  were 
known  to  be  shipped  from  Britain,  to  act  against  the 
southern  colonies.  The  Americans,  sensible  of  their 
danger,  dispatched  immediately  what  forces  they  had  to 
act  against  the  royalists ;  at  the  same  time  they  diligent 
ly  exerted  themselves  to  support  these  with  suitable  re 
inforcements.  Their  present  force  was  commanded  by 
general  Moore,  whose  numbers  were  inferior  to  McDon 
ald's,  for  which  reason  the  latter  summoned  him  to  join 
the  king's  standard,  under  pain  of  being  treated  as  a  re 
bel.  But  Moore  being  well  provided  with  cannon,  and 
conscious  that  nothing  could  be  attempted  against  him, 
returned  the  compliment,  by  acquainting  colonel  McDon 
ald,  that  if  he  and  his  party  would  lay  down  their  arms 
and  subscribe  on  oath  of  fidelity  to  Congress,  they  should 
be  treated  as  friends ;  but  if  they  persisted  in  an  under 
taking,  for  which  it  was  evident  they  had  not  sufficient 
strength,  they  could  not  but  expect  the  severest  treat 
ment.  In  a  few  days  general  Moore  found  himself  at 
the  head  of  eight  thousand  men,  by  reason  of  the  con 
tinual  supplies  which  daily  arrived  from  all  parts.  The 
royal  party  amounted  to  two  thousand,  and  they  were  des- 


LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL   MACON.  41 

titute  of  artillery,  which  prevented  them  from  attacking 
the  enemy  while  they  had  the  advantage  of  numbers. 
They  were  now  therefore  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  a 
desperate  exertion  of  personal  valor  j  by  dint  of  which 
they  effected  a  retreat  for  near  eighty  miles  to  Moms' 
creek,  within  sixteen  miles  of  Wilmington.  Could  they 
have  gained  this  place,  they  expected  to  have  been  joined 
by  governor  Martin  and  general  Clinton,  who  had  lately 
arrived  with  a  considerable  detachment.  But  general 
Moore,  with  his  army,  pursued  them  so  close,  that  they 
were  obliged  to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  creek  itself, 
though  a  considerable  body  of  Americans,  under  the 
command  of  colonel  Caswell,  with  fortifications  well 
planted  with  cannon,  was  posted  on  the  other  side.  On 
attempting  the  creek,  however,  it  was  found  not  to  be 
fordable.  They  were  obliged  therefore  to  cross  over  a 
wooden  bridge,  which  the  provincials  had  not  time  to 
destroy  entirely.  They  had,  however,  by  pulling  up 
part  of  the  planks,  and  greasing  the  remainder,  in  order 
to  render  them  slippery,  made  the  passage  so  difficult, 
that  the  royalists  could  not  attempt  it.  In  this  situation 
they  were  attacked  by  general  Moore,  with  his  superior 
army,  and  totally  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  their  general 
and  most  of  their  leaders,  as  well  as  the  best  and  bravest 
of  their  men.  Thus  was  the  power  of  the  Americans 
established  in  North  Carolina  at  a  very  early  period  of 
the  revolution,  and  having  secured  herself  against  any 
attempts  from  these  enemies,  they  proceeded  to  regulate 
their  internal  concerns  in  the  same  manner  as  the  rest  of 
the  colonies.  Nor  were  they  less  successful  in  the  pro 
vince  of  Virginia;  lord  Dunmore  having  long  continued 
an  useless  predatory  war,  was  at  last  driven  from  every 
4* 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

creek  and  road  in  the  province.  But  South  Carolina  had 
a  more  formidable  enemy  to  deal  with.  At  Cape  Fear, 
a  juncture  was  formed  between  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and 
Sir  Peter  Parker,  the  latter  of  whom  had  sailed  with  his 
squadron  directly  from  Europe.  They  concluded  to  at 
tempt  the  reduction  of  Charleston  as  being,  of  all  places 
within  the  line  of  their  instructions,  the  object  at  which 
they  could  strike  with  the  greatest  advantage. 

The  author  thought  it  necessary  to  relate  this  portion 
of  the  history  of  our  revolution,  to  show  the  relative  si^ 
tuations  of  North  and  South  Carolina  at  the  time  Nathan 
iel  Macon  entered  into  service,  and  that  probably,  the 
importance  of  the  capture  of  Charleston  was  the  princi 
pal  consideration,  that  influenced  him  to  sacrifice  his 
ease  and  security  and  favorite  pursuits,  which  were  much 
more  congenial  to  his  habits  and  natural  disposition,  and 
take  up  arms  as  a  volunteer.  Be  that  as  it  may;  during 
this  eventful  period  he  gave  proofs  of  that  indifference 
for  office  and  emolument,  and  that  unaffected  devoted- 
ness  to  his  country's  good,  which  his  future  history  so 
conspicuously  illustrated.  He  served  in  the  ranks  as  a 
common  soldier,  and  though  command  and  places  of 
trust  and  confidence  were  often  tendered  him,  he  inva 
riably  declined  them,  desiring  only  to  occupy  the  station 
and  to  share  the  hardships  and  perils,  common  to  the 
greatest  portion  of  his  fellow  soldiers.  In  those  times 
too,  were  developed  those  noble  traits  of  character  which 
attracted  to  him,  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his  coun 
trymen.  He  became  generally  known  throughout  the 
state,  and  won  for  himself  a  popularity,  to  which  his 
country  is  indebted  for  his  long  and  useful  and  illustrious 
services  in  the  public  councils.  He  believed  that  gen- 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  43 

tility  was  neither  in  birth,  manner,  nor  fashion,  but  in  the 
mind.  A  high  sense  of  honor,  a  determination  never  to 
take  a  mean  advantage  of  another,  an  adherence  to  truth, 
delicacy,  and  politeness  towards  those  with  whom  we 
have  dealings  were  the  essential  and  distinguished  char 
acteristics  of  a  gentleman.  And  making  it  a  principle 
during  his  whole  services  in  the  army,  to  extend  the  hand 
of  fellowship  to  every  man,  who  discharged  his  duty, 
maintained  good  order,  who  manifested  an  interest  in 
the  general  welfare  and  success  of  their  country's  inde 
pendence, — whose  deportment  was  upright,  and  whose 
mind  was  intelligent,  without  stopping  to  ascertain, 
whether  the  use  of  the  hammer  or  thread  procured  them 
their  livelihood  before  they  left  home, — he  gained  a  po 
pularity  that  few  private  soldiers  were  ever  known  to  ac 
quire  in  any  army. 

What  a  field  for  improvement  must  have  been  the  life 
of  a  soldier  to  such  a  man  as  Nathaniel  Macon ;  whose 
ability  to  extract  information  for  the  guidance  of  his  own 
conduct,  from  every  subject  that  fell  within  his  notice, 
we  have  all  along  mentioned. 

It  is  not  in  diving  into  metaphysical  subtleties,  and 
ranging  over  the  intricacies  of  strict  philosophical  dis 
cussion,  that  real  knowledge  is  alone  to  be  obtained  ; 
much,  and  what  perhaps  is  the  most  valuable  and  useful 
for  the  purposes  of  life,  is  to  be  gathered  from  those  sub 
jects,  which  are,  or  ought  to  be,  interesting  to  every 
man.  To  contemplate  man  in  the  abstract,  divested  of 
all  those  appendages  of  character  and  taste,  which  gener 
ally  take  their  rise  from  circumstances,  through  which 
he  is  called  to  pass,  may  seem  to  be  the  task  of  the  phi 
losopher  alone  ; — but  to  consider  him  as  he  actually  is  in 


44  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

society, — to  view  the  dispositions  which  influences  his 
conduct — the  diversified  habits  which  he  assumes  while 
passing  through  this  stage  of  existence — the  manner  in 
which  he  is  liable  to  be  wrought  upon  by  various  incen 
tives,  and  to  mark  with  attention  the  different  feelings 
which  actuate  him, — is  the  business  of  every  one  who 
wishes  to  regulate  his  own  conduct  aright,  and  to  act 
from  rational  and  consistent  motives. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  45 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  regiment  in  which  Nathaniel  Macon  enlisted,  had 
no  actual  engagement,  whilst  he  was  in  service,  that  we 
are  informed.  We  have  then  no  splendid  instances  of 
personal  courage  to  record  of  him, — more  than  he  truly 
possessed  that  boldness  and  resolution  which  were  com 
mon  to  the  American  character  of  the  times.  That  he 
was  truly  brave  there  is  no  doubt.  But  his  was  a  courage 
of  too  noble  a  quality  to  be  generated  by  every  casual  ac 
cident.  It  did  not  only  appear  in  the  storm,  but  during 
the  mildest  calm  it  had  an  existence  also.  Men  are  fre 
quently  found  adventurous  and  daring  merely  in  conse 
quence  of  never  having  calculated  the  hazard, — and  are 
seemingly  brave  only  because  they  are  ignorant.  But  this 
was  not  the  character  of  Mr.  Macon.  Judgment  was  the 
companion  of  his  bravery,  and  his  courage  was  the  more 
to  be  admired  as  it  was  always  directed  by  wisdom.  He 
was  a  man  who  in  times  of  danger  and  alarm,  saw  the  dif 
ficulties  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  and  rightly  appre 
ciating  the  strength,  he  was  to  contend  against ;  would 
bring  into  the  field  an  equal  force,  in  his  own  courage 
and  decision  ;  who  would  be  alarmed  by  no  danger  and 
intimated  by  no  distress ;  would  meet  with  firmness  what 
it  would  be  dishonorable  to  avoid ;  resist  while  strength 
remained  for  the  contest,  and  enjoy  victory  with  mode 
ration,  or  suffer  defeat  without  disgrace.  Although  he 


46  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

was  in  very  humble  circumstances  as  to  property,  about 
the  time  he  left  the  army,  he  never  would  consent  to 
receive  one  cent  for  his  services.  He  gave  his  heart 
and  soul  to  the  cause  in  which  he  had  embarked.  He 
loved  his  country,  and  like  a  dutiful  son,  gave  her,  in  time 
of  need;  'twas  all  he  had,  his  personal  services;  and  not 
withstanding  that,  that  country  afterwards  smiling  with 
prosperity,  had  with  a  munificence  deserving  all  praise 
made  a  liberal  provision  for  the  soldiers  of  the  revolu 
tion,  still  did  he  decline  the  proffered  bounty.  Often 
has  he  been  heard  to  say  (disclaiming  all  imputation 
upon  others)  that  no  state  of  fortune  could  induce  him 
to  accept  it.  Here  we  may.  remark,  it  does  not  follow, 
because  we  are  sometimes  inclined  to  be  selfish,  that  we 
must  never  be  generous.  He  that  sees  nothing  in  the 
universe  deserving  of  regard  but  himself,  is  a  consummate 
stranger  to  the  dictates  of  immutable  reason.  He  that 
is  not  influenced  in  his  conduct  by  the  real  and  inherent 
nature  of  things,  is  rational  to  no  purpose.  Admitting 
that  it  is  venial  to  do  some  actions  immediately  benefi 
cial  to  our  country  from  a  partial  retrospect  to  ourselves, 
surely  there  must  be  other  actions  in  which  we  ought 
to  forget  or  endeavour  to  forget  ourselves.  This  duty  is 
most  obligatory  in  actions  most  extensive  in  their  conse 
quences.  If  a  thousand  men,  or  a  whole  nation,  be  to 
be  benefitted,  we  ought  to  recollect  that  we  are  only  an 
atom  in  the  comparison,  and  to  reason  accordingly.  Such 
may  have  been  the  considerations  which  influenced  Na 
thaniel  Macon  in  his  decision  upon  the  article  of  boun 
ties  for  public  services,  as  regarded  himself.  Further,  if 
we  pay  an  ample  bounty  to  him  who  is  employed  in  the 
public  service,  how  are  we  sure  that  he  will  riot  have  more 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  47 

regard  to  the  bounty  than  to  the  public.  If  we  pay  a 
small  bounty,  yet  the  very  existence  of  such  a  payment 
will  oblige  men  to  compare  the  work  performed  as  the 
reward  bestowed  ;  and  all  the  consequence  that  will  re 
sult  will  be  to  drive  the  best  men  from  the  services  of  their 
country,  a  service  first  degraded  by  being  paid,  and  then 
paid  with  an  ill-timed  parsimony.  Another  considera 
tion  of  great  weight  in  this  instance  with  Nathaniel 
Macon  might  have  been,  that  of  the  source  from  which 
bounties  are  derived  ;  from  the  public  revenue,  from  tax 
es  imposed  upon  the  community; — if  it  is  said,  they 
might  be  paid  out  of  the  superfluities  of  the  community, 
the  answer  is,  there  is  no  practicable  mode  of  collecting 
the  superfluities  of  a  community.  Taxation  to  be  strict 
ly  equal,  if  it  demand  from  the  man  of  an  hundred  a 
year,  ten  pounds,  ought  to  demand  from  the  man  of  a 
thousand  a  year,  nine  hundred  and  ten.  Taxation  will 
always  be  unequal  and  oppressive,  wresting  the  hard 
earned  morsel  from  the  gripe  of  the  peasant,  and  sparing 
him  most,  whose  superfluities  most  defy  the  limits  of  jus 
tice.  We  will  not  say  that  a  man  of  as  clear  discern 
ment  and  as  independent  mind  as  Nathaniel  Macon, 
would  rather  starve  than  be  subsisted  at  the  public  cost, 
but  we  can  venture  to  say,  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
devise  any  expedient  for  his  subsistence,  that  he  would 
not  rather  accept. 

Besides  the  foregoing  considerations,  Mr.  Macon 
might  have  been  influenced  in  refusing  pay  for  his  ser 
vices  at  the  time,  from  the  depreciation  of  the  paper 
currency  of  the  country.  For  at  the  time  when  the 
colonies  were  engaged  in  a  war  with  Great  Britain, 
they  had  no  regular  civil  governments  established  among 


48  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

them,  of  sufficient  energy  to  enforce  the  collection  of 
taxes,  or  to  provide  funds  for  the  redemption  of  such 
bills  of  credit  as  their  necessities  obliged  them  to  issue. 
In  consequence  of  this  state  of  things,  their  bills  increas 
ed  in  quantity  far  beyond  the  sum  necessary  for  the 
purpose  of  a  circulating  medium :  and  as  they  wanted 
at  the  same  time,  specified  funds  to  rest  on  for  their  re 
demption,  they  saw  their  paper  currency  daily  sink  in 
value.  The  depreciation  continued  by  a  kind  of  gradu 
al  progression,  from  the  year  1777  to  1780;  so  that  at 
the  latter  period,  the  continental  dollars  were  passed  by 
common  consent,  in  most  parts  of  America,  at  the  rate 
of  thirty-nine  forty-sixths  below  their  nominal  value. 
And  not  only  the  insurmountable  embarassments  in  as 
certaining  the  value  of  property,  or  carrying  on  trade  of 
any  kind  with  any  sufficient  certainty,  those  who  sel 
ling,  and  those  who  buying,  being  left  without  a  rule 
whereon  to  form  a  judgment  of  their  profit  or  their 
losgj — and  every  species  of  commerce  or  exchange, 
whether  foreign  or  domestic,  being  exposed  to  number 
less  and  increasing  difficulties,  the  consequences  of  the 
depreciation  of  the  paper  currency,  were  also  felt  with 
peculiar  severity  by  such  of  the  Americans  as  were  en 
gaged  in  their  military  services,  and  greatly  augmented 
their  hardships.  The  requisitions  made  by  the  congress 
to  the  several  colonies  for  supplies,  were  also  far  from 
being  always  regularly  complied  with  ;  and  their  troops 
being  not  unfrequently  in  want  of  the  most  common 
necessaries,  which  naturally  occasioned  complaints  and 
discontent  among  them. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four  years,  whilst  he  was  yet  in 
the  army,  his  countrymen  elected  Mr.  Macon  a  member 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  49 

of  the  Legislature  of  his  state,  without  his  solicitation  or 
even  his  knowledge.  And  here  it  is  related  of  him^ 
that  such  was  his  attachment  to  his  comrades  in  arms, 
that  it  was  not  only  with  reluctance  he  separated  from 
them,  but  it  was  with  great  difficulty  he  was  induced 
to  accept  the  station  by  the  most  pressing  persuasion  of 
his  commanding  officers. 

Mr.  Macon's  early  entering  with  spirit  into  the  con 
troversy  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  and  so 
warmly  espousing  the  cause  of  his  country,  felt  the  par 
amount  importance  of  the  union  among  the  colonies,  and 
the  entire  separation  of  American  and  British  interest. 
His  being  no  enthusiast,  nor  one  of  those  feverish  spirits, 
which  in  their  zeal  injure  rather  than  benefit  any  cause 
they  undertake.  His  not  being  easily  seduced  from  the 
paths  of  duty,  by  motives  of  wordly  ambition  or  love  of 
applause.  His  patriotism  being  of  a  singularly  elevated 
character.  And  the  sacrifices  which  he  showed  a  wil 
lingness  to  make,  besides  what  he  had  done  for  the  good 
of  his  country, — sufficiently  recommended  him  to  the 
confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens.  Besides  a  quick  and 
penetrating  mind,  and  at  the  same  time  sound  and  accu 
rate  judgment, — a  scrupulous  justice  marking  his  deal 
ings  with  all  men,  and  exhibiting  great  fidelity  in  his 
engagements, — qualified  him  for  any  office  within  the 
gift  of  the  people  of  that  day. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACOSf. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

MR.  MACON  served  several  years  as  a  member  of  the 
legislature  of  North  Carolina,  and  acquitted  himself  in 
that  capacity  so  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  constitu 
ents, — he  soon  began  to  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  of  his  age  in  the  congressional  district 
in  which  he  lived.  About  this  time  also,  he  courted  and 
married  a.  Miss  Plummer,  of  the  same  county,  a  young 
lady  of  one  of  the  first  families  in  the  country. 

It  is  thought,  generally,  that  men  possessed  of  uncom 
mon  talents,  are  apt  to  trust  so  much  to  their  intrinsic 
merit,  that  they  acquire  the  habit  of  despising,  as  beneath 
their  regard,  those  acquirements  which  is  so  necessary 
to  render  a  man  agreeable  in  female  society.  It  seems 
that  most  of  them  consider  themselves  as  gold ;  though 
not  always  highly  polished,  will  always  be  valued ;  they 
seem  to  think  they  may  rest  secure  upon  their  sterling 
merit,  as  sufficient  to  procure  them  the  esteem  and  con 
sideration  of  both  sexes.  Mr.  Macon  differed  very  much 
in  this  particular  from  such  men ;  there  was  something 
of  a  placid  dignity  in  his  aspect ;  of  a  politeness,  not  of 
form,  but  of  sentiment,  in  his  manner;  of  a  mildness  un- 
debased  by  flattery;  in  his  conversation,  equally  pleasing 
and  equally  respectable,  which  always  constituted  him  a 
great  favourite  among  the  ladies;  though  his  attentions 
and  deportment  towards  them  were  entirely  different 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  51 

from  what  is  generally  termed  a  lady's  man.  In  his  in 
tercourse  with  them  there  was  none  of  the  airs  of  that 
foppishness  and  ceremony  which  is  thought  by  many  to 
succeed  with  them  best.  He  treated  them  as  if  they 
were  rational  beings, — and  conversed  \vith  them  as  intel 
lectual  creatures,  whose  difference  of  sex  had  created 
no  difference  of  respect  in  his  mind  towards  their  under 
standing  and  worth.  He  knew  there  was  in  the  female 
character  a  fear  of  offending,  a  self  diffidence,  a  delicate 
sense  of  propriety,  which  rendered  a  woman  unhappy 
when  she  said  or  done,  or  thought  she  had  done  or  said 
a  thing  not  perfectly  as  it  ought  to  have  been ; — a  quick 
perception  and  a  delicate  sensibility,  rendering  her  feel 
ingly  alive  to  the  opinions  of  those  around  her;  from 
which  proceeded  that  modest  shyness,  that  bewitching 
softness,  the  most  attractive  charm  which  heaven  has 
bestowed  on  woman-kind.  He  knew,  that  afraid  of  in 
feriority,  a  woman  of  sensibility  felt  a  certain  degree  of 
uneasiness  in  the  company  of  men  of  high  ability  and 
profound  learning.  Diffident  of  being  able  to  converse 
with  such  men  on  equal  terms,  she  fancies  she  is  con 
temned  by  them ;  she  feels  a  disagreeable  restraint  in 
their  presence,  from  which  she  is  glad  to  be  relieved, 
and  to  find  herself  in  a  circle  where,  though  she  may 
meet  with  less  genius,  less  knowledge,  and  less  wit,  she 
is  more  upon  a  footing  with  those  around  her,  and  less 
afraid  of  betraying  any  defect  in  herself.  Pefectly  aware 
of  these  characteristics  of  the  softer  sex,  he  possessed  a 
way  which  was  peculiar  to  himself  alone  of  removing 
such  restraints  and  delicacies ;  and  familiarising  in  a 
manner  almost  all  the  females  with  whom  he  at  any  time 
associated.  Many  of  them  feeling  so  easy  in  his  com- 


52  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

pany,  they  could  scarcely  suppress  showing  a  predilection 
to  it,  to  the  company  of  those  frivolous  men  of  fashion 
and  etiquette  to  which  they  are  thought  by  some  to  be 
so  much  more  attached,  and  in  which  particuk:  we 
hear  the  sex  daily  blamed  ;  their  conduct  affording  mat 
ter  for  much  severe  censure.  But  were  we  to  admit  thai 
women  are  apt  to  prefer  the  society  of  men  of  light  and 
showy  parts  to  that  of  men  of  more  cultivated  minds ; 
we  cannot  for  our  part  allow,  that  they  merit  all  the  ob 
loquy  that  has  been  thrown  upon  them  on  that  account. 
This  injustice  of  our  sex  towards  the  other,  often  arises 
from  a  want  of  duly  considering  the  different  conditions 
of  each.  Females  are  necessarily  under  the  tutelage  of 
circumstances  and  of  situation,  governed  by  the  decorum 
of  sex,  by  the  forms  of  the  world.  If  we  picture  to  our 
selves  a  woman  divested  of  that  pliability  of  mind,  firm 
in  resolve,  unshaken  in  conduct,  unmoved  by  the  deli 
cacies  of  situation,  by  the  fashion  of  the  times,  by  the 
fear  even  of  common-place  obloquy,  or  of  flippant  cen 
sure  ;  in  the  delineation  of  such  a  character,  we  imme 
diately  change  the  idea  of  the  sex,  and  behold  under  the 
form  of  a  woman,  the  virtues  and  qualities  of  a  man. 
It  may  also  be  observed,  that  there  is  something  in  the 
female  mind  which  delights  more  in  the  beautiful  than 
the  sublime;  more  in  the  amiable  than  the  splendid;  more 
in  what  engages  and  captivates,  than  in  what  awes  with 
its  grandeur,  or  astonishes  with  its  vastness.  May  not 
the  same  softness  and  delicacy  dispose  her  to  prefer  those 
gentle  manners  and  amiable  qualities  which  adorn  pri 
vate  and  domestic  scenes,  to  the  more  splendid  talents 
which  fit  a  man  to  shine  in  public  life;  in  the  senate,  in 
the  field ;  or  which  qualify  him  to  instruct  and  inform 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MA  CON.  53 

mankind  by  philosophical  inquiry  or  deep  investigation. 
Were  the  regard,  the  esteem,  the  confidence  of  the  wo 
men  confined  to  such  alone,  (it  falling  to  the  lot  of  a  very 
small  portion  of  the  human  race,  to  possess  those  talents 
which  enable  a  man  "to  read  his  history  in  a  nation's 
eyes,")  the  bulk  of  mankind  would  be  deprived  of  the 
best,  the  purest  source  of  happiness  which  this  world 
affords, — viz :  the  felicity  flowing  from  a  union  with  a 
virtuous  woman,  who  pours  out  her  soul  into  the  bosom 
of  him  she  loves ;  who  reposes  in  him  with  unbounded 
confidence,  and  whose  great  object  of  ambition  it  is  to 
soften  every  care,  to  alleviate  every  calamity  and  to  dif 
fuse  happiness  on  all  around  her. 

Politeness  has  been  said  to  be  the  growth  of  courts; — 
but  Mr.  Macon's  politeness  was  not  precisely  that  scheme 
and  system  of  behavior  which  can  only  be  learned  in  the 
fashionable  wrorld.  He  knew  there  were  many  things 
in  the  system  of  the  fashionable  world,  that  were  prac 
tised,  not  to  encourage  but  depress,  not  to  produce  hap 
piness  but  mortification ;  and  that  these  by  whatever 
name  they  were  called,  were  the  reverse  of  genuine  po 
liteness.  His  politeness  therefore  was  of  a  character 
that  cannot  conspicuously  exist,  but  in  a  mind,  itself  un 
embarrassed,  and  at  liberty  to  attend  to  the  feelings  of 
others ;  and  distinguished  by  an  open  ingenuousness  of 
countenance  and  an  easy  and  flowing  manner.  By  polite 
ness,  many  persons  understand  artificial  manners,  the  very 
purpose  of  which  is  to  stand  between  the  feelings  of  the 
heart  and  the  external  behaviour.  The  word  immediately 
conjures  up  to  their  mind  a  corrupt  and  vicious  mode  of 
society,  and  they  conceive  it  to  mean  a  set  of  rules, 
founded  in  no  just  reason,  and  ostentatiously  practised 
5* 


54  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

by  those  who  are  familiar  with  them,  for  no  purpose 
more  expressly,  than  to  confound  and  keep  at  a  distance 
those  who,  by  the  accident  of  their  birth  or  fortune,  are 
ignorant  of  them.  Mr.  Macon's  politeness  was  seldom 
or  never  at  variance  with  sincerity.  In  its  principle,  it 
was  nearer,  and  in  a  more  direct  communication  with, 
the  root  of  virtue  and  utility,  than  the  artificial  manners 
just  described — its  original  purpose  being  to  provide  for 
the  cardinal  interest  of  human  beings,  the  great  stamina 
of  their  happiness,  as  well  as  to  be  the  gleaner  in  the 
field,  and  pick  up  and  husband  those  smaller  and  scat 
tered  years  of  happiness,  which  the  pride  of  stoicism, 
like  the  pride  of  wealth,  condescends  not  to  observe. 
It  was  owing  to  this  peculiarity  in  his  politeness,  that  he 
was  so  much  indebted  for  his  success  among  the  ladies 
as  well  as  gentlemen  of  his  day. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  that  men  are  apt  to  display 
more  of  their  real  character  in  circumstances  apparently 
slight  arid  unimportant,  than  in  the  greater  and  more 
momentous  actions  of  life.  Our  behavior,  or  even  the 
remark  we  may  drop  upon  some  seemingly  trifling  oc 
currence,  will  often  strongly  denote  the  real  complexion 
of  our  mind;  and  it  is  upon  this  account  that  we  admire 
so  much  the  happy  talents  of  those  writers  who,  by  a 
well  chosen  circumstance,  contrive  at  once  to  paint  and 
make  us  acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  persons 
whom  they  wish  to  describe. 

The  great  passions  which  actuate  men  in  the  pursuits 
of  life,  present  little  diversity  of  features  to  afford  any 
just  discrimination  of  character.  Besides,  in  conducting 
the  pursuits  to  which  these  passions  incite,  men  are 
taught  to  be  upon  their  guard :  they  are  restrained  by  the 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  55 

customs  and  opinions  of  the  world,  and,  under  a  kind  of 
disguise,  are  constantly  acting  an  artificial  part.  But  in 
the  more  trifling  circumstances  of  manner  and  behaviour, 
and  in  the  more  ordinary  occurrences  of  life  in  private 
circles,  and  in  which  therefore  men  are  less  upon  their 
guard,  any  disguise  is  forgot  to  be  assumed,  and  we  give 
way  to  the  natural  cast  of  our  mind  and  disposition.  It 
is  there  we  are  apt  to  betray  these  peculiar  features  of 
character,  and  those  often  nice  shades  of  distinction,  that 
discriminate  us  from  one  another,  and  even  in  what  may 
be  deemed  very  slight  circumstances  of  outward  deport 
ment  and  manner,  can  be  distinctly  traced  something  of 
the  peculiar  character  of  the  man.  Such  being  the  case, 
in  many  instances;  it  may  not  be  amiss  here  in  the  con 
clusion  of  this  chapter,  by  way  of  exemplification,  to  in 
sert  an  anecdote  from  one  of  Mr*  Macon's  youthful  as 
sociates  concerning  his  courtship  with  Miss  Plummer. 

It  appears  that  Mr.  Macon  and  one  of  his  rivals  met 
at  the  house  in  which  Miss  Hannah  Plummer  resided, 
at  the  same  time.  Mr.  Macon  after  the  ordinary  cere 
monies  of  the  meeting  were  settled,  proposed  to  his  rival 
in  the  presence  of  the  object  of  their  mutual  admiration, 
that  they  should  take  a  game  of  cards  for  Hannah ;  and 
that  the  vanquished  should  surrender  her  to  the  other 
and  never  more  be  in  his  way — told  him  that  he  could 
think  of  no  better  way  than  this — and  that  it  was  cer 
tainly  the  shortest  way  to  decide  their  controversy.  The 
expedient  was  agreed  to,  by  the  two  rivals — and  the  re 
sult  of  the  game  was,  that  Mr.  Macon  lost  Hannah — 
upon  which  he  raised  up  his  hands,  with  his  eyes  fixed 
upon  Hannah,  sparkling  with  beams  of  affection,  exclaim 
ing,  Hannah!  "notwithstanding  I  have  lost  you  fairly, — 


56  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

love  is  superior  to  honesty, — I  cannot  give  you  up.  It 
is  said  the  manner  in  which  he  made  this  declaration, 
inclined  the  scale  in  his  favour ;  and  that  him  and  Han 
nah  were  shortly  after  married.  Mr.  Macon  seldom  in 
dulged  in  humour,  but  when  he  did,  his  remarks  were 
always  directed  with  philosophical  skill,  to  the  accom 
plishment  of  the  object  which  he  had  in  view. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  57 


CHAPTER   IX. 

FROM  this  period  of  Mr.  Macon's  life  to  its  close,  the 
reader  will  find  his  biography  much  more  instructing  and 
amusing  than  in  the  preceding  pages,  in  which  he  has 
only  been  traced  in  those  minute  and  ordinary  actions, 
from  which,  to  many  minds,  no  consequences  could  arise, 
but  to  the  private  circle  of  his  own  family  and  friends ; 
and  in  the  detail  of  which,  they  can  see  no  passion  ex 
cited,  no  character  developed,  nothing  that  should  much 
distinguish  them  from  the  common  occurrences  "which 
daily  took  their  course  and  were  forgotton."  But  the 
author  is  of  an  opinion,  that  in  the  perusal  of  the  limited 
pictures  which  biography  generally  presents  to  us,  there 
will  be  but  few  readers,  who  will  not  take  a  warm  inte 
rest  in  every  thing  that  regards  a  truly  deserving  char 
acter  ;  who  will  not  feel  a  sensible  pleasure  in  those  in 
stances,  where  the  benevolent  purposes  of  such  a  person 
have  been  attended  with  success  or  his  virtuous  actions 
followed  by  reward. 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Macon's  union  with  Miss  Plummer, 
he  retired  to  his  residence  near  Roanoke  river,  in  his 
native  county,  (Warren,)  where  he  resided  the  remain 
der  of  his  life,  only  when  he  was  called  off  in  the  ser 
vice  of  the  public  councils  of  the  nation.  He  was  now 
between  twenty-five  and  thirty  years  of  age,  and  being 
particularly  attached  to  all  the  enjoyments  of  domestic 


58  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

life, — it  may  be  inferred  that  few  men  were  ever  happier 
or  had  brighter  prospects  of  happiness  before  them.  His 
union  with  Miss  Plummer  appeared  to  be  a  union  of  two 
kindred  souls,  that  were  created  to  make  each  other  hap 
py.  Educated  and  raised  pretty  much  in  the  same 
respectable  sphere  of  life,  their  tastes,  their  sentiments 
and  ambition  were  so  nearly  the  same  in  every  thing, — 
that  a  failure  in  affection  on  the  part  of  either  were  al 
most  impossible.  But  it  was  their  lot  to  enjoy  the  bles 
sings  of  this  happy  union,  but  for  a  few  years, — it  being 
the  will  of  Heaven  to  take  from  him,  the  most  valued  of 
all  earthly  blessings,  a  good  wife ;  leaving  behind  her, 
two  little  daughters  to  his  care  and  raising,  as  pledges  of 
her  former  affection.  Amidst  this,  the  severest  of  all 
his  trials,  he  ever  experienced,  he  maintained  a  philo 
sophical  firmness,  and  a  calm  resignation  to  this  dispen 
sation  of  Providence,  which  in  similar  circumstances 
belong  to  but  a  few,  and  to  but  one  class  of  men  in  this 
world. 

There  is  a  certain  speculative  philosophy  held  forth 
by  some  in  the  world,  which  regards  all  sensible  plea 
sures  as  a  deduction  from  the  purity  and  dignity  of  the 
mind,  and  which  does  not  abstain  even  from  invective 
against  intellectual  pleasure  itself.  Teaching  men  to 
court  persecution  and  calamity,  it  delights  to  plant  thorns 
in  the  paths  of  human  life,  representing  sorrow,  anguish, 
and  mortification  as  the  ornaments  and  honour  of  exis 
tence.  Preaching  the  vanity  and  emptiness  of  all  earthly 
things,  and  maintaining  that  it  is  unworthy  of  a  good  and 
wise  man  to  feel  complacency  in  any  of  the  sensations 
they  can  afford.  These  notions  may  sufficiently  accord 
with  the  system  of  those  who  are  willing  to  part  with  all 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  59 

the  benefits  of  the  present  scene  of  existence,  in  ex 
change  for  certain  speculations  upon  the  chances  of  a 
world  to  come.  But  they  cannot  enter  into  that  liberal 
and  enlightened  philosophy  understood  and  practised  by 
such  men  as  Mr.  Macon ;  where  a  less  pleasure  is  not  to 
be  bartered  but  for  a  greater,  either  to  ourselves  or  others, 
nor  a  scheme  attended  with  the  certainty  or  probability 
of  considerable  pleasure  for  an  air-built  speculation. 

To  be  sure  there  can  be  nothing  more  contemptible, 
than  the  man  who  dedicates  all  the  energies  of  his  mind 
to  indulgences  of  any  kind.  But  it  is  more  necessary 
that  we  should  not  proscribe  them  altogether,  than  that 
we  should  make  them  one  of  the  eminent  pursuits  of  our 
lives.  We  ought  not  only  confine  them  within  limits 
considerably  narrow,  as  to  the  time  they  should  occupy, 
but  should  also  be  careful  they  do  not  confound  and  ine 
briate  our  understanding.  This  is  indeed  necessary,  in 
order  to  the  keeping  them  in  due  subordination  in  the 
respect  last  mentioned.  If  they  be  not  held  in  subjec 
tion  as  to  their  place  in  our  thoughts,  they  will  speedily 
usurp  upon  all  other  subjects,  and  convert  the  mind  into 
a  scene  of  tumult  and  confusion.  It  is  from  such  dis 
cipline  as  this,  that  such  men  as  Mr.  Macon  always 
possesses  a  certain  calmness  of  temper,  superior  to  the 
ordinary  classes  of  mankind ;  which  causes  their  minds 
always  to  rest  upon  its  proper  centre,  and  prepares  them 
to  meet  some  of  the  greatest  calamities  of  this  life  with 
an  apparent  self-indifference,  which  many  take  for  want 
of  that  absolute  sympathy  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
their  fellow  creatures. 

The  man  who  is  anxious  to  maintain  his  contentment 
of  mind,  and  be  always  guarded  against  the  misfortunes 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

of  this  life,  ought  steadily  to  bear  in  mind  how  few  are 
the  wants  of  a  human  being.  It  is  by  our  wants  that  we 
are  held  down,  and  linked  in  a  thousand  ways  to  human 
society — they  render  the  man  who  is  devoted  to  them, 
the  slave  of  every  creature  that  breathes.  They  make 
all  the  difference  between  the  hero  and  the  coward. 
The  man  of  true  courage  can  cheerfully  dispense  with 
any  of  the  blessings  of  this  life,  when  either  duty,  public 
good,  or  the  will  of  an  all-wise  Providence  demand  it. 
The  coward  is  he,  who  wedded  to  such  blessings,  is  not 
able  so  much  as  to  think  with  equanimity  of  the  being 
deprived  of  them.  Such  is  the  genuine  philosophy  of 
such  men  as  Mr.  Macon;  it  teaches  them  to  look  upon 
events,  not  absolutely  with  indifference,  but  at  least  with 
tranquility.  It  instructs  them  to  enjoy  the  benefits 
which  they  possess,  and  prepares  them  for  what  is  to 
follow.  It  smiles  upon  them  in  the  midst  of  poverty, 
and  cheers  them  in  the  most  adverse  circumstances.  It 
enables  them  to  collect  and  combine  comforts,  which  may 
be  extracted  from  the  most  untoward  situation,  and  be 
content. 

Mr.  Macon  after  the  loss  of  his  wife,  employed  his 
time  mostly  in  reading,  meditation,  and  attention  to  his 
plantation ;  being  always  particularly  attached  to  the  lat 
ter  employment.  He  excelled  most  men  in  domestic 
industry  and  economy.  His  great  object  being  to  live 
independent ;  the  whole  of  his  plans  were  directed  to 
that  particular  object.  We  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  he 
was  any  thing  like  a  proficient  in  agriculture  as  a  science, 
at  this  early  period  of  its  history  in  the  United  States. 
For  the  knowledge  of  agriculture  both  practical  and  ac 
quired  at  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war,  were  in  a 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  61 

state  almost  de mi-barbarian,  with  some  solitary  excep 
tions.  The  labours  of  only  three  agricultural  societies  in 
America,  at  that  epoch,  conducted  by  ardent  patriots,  by 
philosophers  and  gentlemen  in  the  state  of  New- York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Boston,  kept  alive  a  spirit  of  inquiry, 
often  resulting  in  useful  and  practical  operations :  and 
yet  these  measures  did  not  reach  the  doors  of  practical 
farmers,  to  any  visible  extent.  Nor  was  their  plan  of 
organization  calculated  to  infuse  a  spirit  of  emulation, 
which  county  or  state  should  excel  in  the  honorable 
strife  of  competitions  in  discoveries  and  improvements, 
in  drawing  from  the  soil  the  greatest  quantum  of  net 
profits  within  a  given  space ;  at  the  same  time  keeping 
the  land  in  an  improving  condition,  in  reference  to  its 
native  vigor. 

The  early  neglect  of  agriculture  in  our  country,  may 
be  traced  to  very  obvious  causes.  The  first  settlements 
in  the  country  were  made  along  the  shores  of  the  sea,  or 
on  the  banks  of  navigable  rivers.  Population  was  thin 
and  scattered,  and  the  ocean  with  its  tributary  waters 
offered  by  far  the  easiest  means  of  subsistence.  The 
fisheries  and  navigation  naturally  attracted  their  active 
attention,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  earth  was  limited  to 
the  supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  a  scanty  sur 
plus  to  answer  the  humble  demands  of  colonial  com 
merce.  The  circumstances  of  the  country,  down  to 
the  very  era  of  the  revolutionary  struggle,  were  such  as 
tended  unavoidably  to  reduce  agriculture  below  its  just 
consequence  in  the  scale  of  useful  employments,  and  to 
elevate  all  the  arts  connected  with  navigation,  above 
their  proper  estimation.  Capital  was  drawn  off  from  the 
pursuits  of  agriculture,  and  devoted  to  the  more  lucra- 
6 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACOtf. 

live  pursuits  of  commerce.  When  to  this  is  added  the 
unceasing  drain  upon  the  agricultural  population,  by  the 
prospects  which  the  extent  of  the  interior,  and  the  cheap 
ness  of  lands,  opened  to  their  enterprise,  and  the  conse 
quent  effect  upon  the  demand  for  labor,  there  is  more 
cause  of  surprise  that  the  actual  state  of  cultivation  was 
so  good,  than  of  reproach  that  it  did  not  receive  a  higher 
improvement. 

The  agriculturist  is  said  to  possess  more  of  the  means 
of  living  within  himself,  than  any  other  profession.  He 
is  not  under  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  fawning  for 
patronage,  or  stooping  to  flattery  for  a  livelihood;  or  bar 
tering  opinion,  reputation  or  confidence  for  gold.  His 
occupation  is  therefore  such  as  naturally  to  produce  in 
dependence  of  thought,  of  feeling  and  action ;  and  by 
means  of  this  acknowledged  influence,  no  class  of  the 
community  are  so  free  from  deceitfulness.  The  main 
pillars  of  a  republican  community,  they  constitirt^the 
nerve  of  war,  the  stability  of  peace,  and  the  grand  roun- 
tain  head  of  a  country's  prosperity.  And  the  proposi 
tion,  that  no  where  can  domestic  quietness  and  happiness 
be  discoTered,  so  pure  from  an  alloy  of  misery,  as  amid 
the  rural  scenes  and  bowers  of  the  farmer's  home,  can 
not  be  contradicted.  Mr.  Macon  possessed  all  the  essen 
tial  habits  which  is  said  to  constitute  a  good  farmer.  He 
never  undertook  to  cultivate  more  land  than  he  could  do 
thoroughly.  He  never  kept  more  cattle,  horses,  sheep 
or  hogs,  than  he  could  keep  in  good  order.  He  never 
depended  on  his  neighbour,  for  what  he  could,  by  care 
and  good  management,  produce  on  his  own  farm.  He 
never  would  beg  fruit,  while  he  could  plant  trees ;  or 
borrow  tools,  while  he  could  make  or  buy.  He  never 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACQN,  fc# 

was  so  immersed  in  political  matters,  as  to  forget  to  sow 
his  grain,  gather  his  crop  or  manure  his  land, — nor  so 
inattentive  to  them,  as  to  be  ignorant  of  the  great  ques 
tions  of  national  and  state  policy,  that  were  agitated  in 

fiis  day. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER   X. 

INDUSTRY,  economy  and  temperance  distinguished  the 
character  of  Mr.  Macon,  during  every  portion  of  his  life, 
and  he  was  at  this  time  truly  exemplary  in  his  neighbour 
hood  in  the  discharge  of  every  social  and  domestic  duty. 
His  love  of  justice  and  truth  (as  before  mentioned)  and 
his  integrity  of  heart,  commanded  universal  confidence, 
esteem  and  respect.  In  his  dress,  his  manners,  his  hab 
its  and  his  mode  of  life,  he  indulged  no  fondness  for  su 
perfluities,  but  he  never  denied  himself  the  use  of  what 
was  necessary  and  convenient.  The  vanity  of  ostenta 
tion  and  the  littleness  of  pride,  were  alike  disgusting  to 
him.  The  society  of  his  neighborhood  embracing  an 
unusually  large  circle,  seemed  as  it  were  to  constitute 
but  one  family,  of  which  he  was  the  head  and  the  guide  ; 
and  the  rich  stores  of  his  mind  were  common  property, 
His  neighbours,  even  the  humblest,  visited  him  without 
ceremony;  and  in  all  their  difficulties,  applied  to  him  for 
advice  and  comfort,  which  he  never  failed  to  afford,  in  a 
manner  the  most  acceptable.  His  hospitality  at  his  own 
house  amounted  to  almost  a  superabundance  ;  yet  when 
applied  to  for  a  favour  he  never  failed  to  consider  of  the 
importance  it  might  be  to  the  applicant;  and  in  propor 
tion  to  the  benefit  to  be  bestowed  upon  the  petitioner,  it 
was  either  granted  or  withheld  :  This  rigid  adherence 
to  his  principles  of  economy  from  which  he  would  never 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  65 

depart  on  any  account,  might  have  induced  many  from 
want  of  capacity  to  understand  his  motives,  to  judge 
hard  of  his  liberality.  But  it  was  a  favourite  maxim  with 
him,  that  profusion  in  any  thing,  (that  by  an  economical 
application  might  be  a  service  to  mankind,)  was  a  crime, 
both  of  such  a  moral  and  political  character,  that  he  who 
patronised  habits  of  prodigality  and  waste,  as  well  as  he 
who  practised  it,  himself  was  equally  responsible  to  his 
God  and  his  country.  Hence  his  adoption  of  the  method 
of  "saving  the  fragments  that  nothing  might  be  lost." 
And  indeed  when  we  come  to  consider,  which  charac 
ter  deserves  our  preference,  the  man  of  economical 
habits  or  of  profuse  ones  ?  Which  of  the  two  conducts 
himself  in  the  manner  most  beneficial  to  society  ?  Which 
of  the  two  is  actuated  by  motives  the  most  consonant  to 
justice  and  virtue.  We  will  find  that  the  arguments  in 
favour  of  the  latter  is  scarcely  worth  enumerating. 

Riches  and  poverty  are  in  some  degree  necessarily  in 
cidental  to  the  social  existence  of  man.  There  is  no  al 
ternative,  but  that  men  must  either  have  their  portion  of 
labour  assigned  them  by  society  at  large  and  the  produce 
collected  into  a  common  stock  ;  or  that  each  man  must 
be  left  to  exert  the  portion  of  industry,  and  cultivate  the 
habits  of  economy,  to  which  his  mind  shall  prompt  him. 
The  first  of  these  modes  of  existence  deserves  our  fixed 
disapprobation.  It  is  a  state  of  slavery  and  imbecility. 
It  reduces  the  exertions  of  a  human  being,  to  the  level 
of  a  piece  of  mechanism,  prompted  by  no  personal  mo 
tives,  compensated  and  alleviated  by  no  genuine  passions. 
It  puts  an  end  to  that  independence  and  individuality, 
which  are  the  characteristics  of  an  intellectual  existence, 


Ob  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

and  without  which  nothing*  eminently  honourable,  gen 
erous  or  delightful,  can  in  any  degree  subsist. 

Inequality,  therefore,  being  to  a  certain  extent  unavoid 
able,  it  is  the  province  of  justice  and  virtue  to  counter 
act  the  practical  evils  which  inequality  has  a  tendency 
to  produce.  It  is  certain  that  men  will  differ  from  each 
other  in  their  degrees  of  industry  and  economy.  But  it 
is  not  less  certain,  that  the  wants  of  one  man  are  similar 
to  the  wants  of  another,  and  the  same  things  will  con 
duce  to  the  improvement  and  happiness  of  each,  except 
so  far  as  either  is  corrupted  by  the  oppressive  and  tyran- 
ical  condition  of  the  society  in  which  he  is  born.  The 
nature  of  man  requires,  that  each  man  should  be  trusted 
with  a  discretionary  power.  The  principles  of  virtue 
require,  that  the  advantages  existing  in  a  community 
should  be  equally  administered :  or  that  the  inequalities 
which  inevitably  arise,  should  be  repressed  and  kept  down 
within  narrow  limits  as  possible.  Does  the  conduct  of 
the  strict  economist,  or  the  man  of  profusion,  best  contri 
bute  to  this  end  ? 

That  we  may  try  the  question  in  the  most  impartial 
manner,  we  will  set  out  of  the  view  the  man  who  sub 
jects  himself  to  expences  which  he  is  unable  to  dis 
charge.  We  will  suppose  it  is  admitted,  that  the  con 
duct  of  the  man  whose  proceedings  tend  to  a  continual 
accumulation  of  debt,  is  eminently  pernicious.  It  does 
not  contribute  to  his  own  happiness.  It  drives  him  to 
the  perpetual  practice  of  subtifuges.  It  obliges  him  to 
treat  men  not  according  to  their  wants  or  their  merits, 
but  according  to  their  importunity.  It  fixes  on  him  an 
ever  gnawing  anxiety  that  poisons  all  his  pleasures.  He 
is  altogether  a  stranger  to  that  genuine  lightness  of  heart, 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  67 

which  characterises  the  man  of  ease  and  independence. 
Care  has  placed  her  brand  conspicuous  on  his  brow.  He 
is  subject  to  occasional  paroxysms  of  anguish  which  no 
luxuries  or  splendour  can  compensate.  He  accuses  the 
system  of  nature  of  poisonous  infection,  but  the  evil  is  in 
his  own  system  of  conduct. 

The  pains  he  suffers  in  himself  are  the  obvious  coun 
terpart  of  the  evils  he  inflicts  upon  others.  He  might 
have  forseen  the  effects  of  his  own  conduct,  and  that 
foresight  might  have  taught  him  to  avoid  it.  But  fore 
sight  is  in  many  instances,  to  such  men,  impracticable. 
They  suffer  not  in  consequence  of  their  own  extrava 
gance.  They  cannot  take  to  themselves  the  miserable 
consolation,  that  if  now  they  are  distressed,  they  have 
at  least  lavished  their  money  themselves,  and  had  their 
period  of  profusion  and  riot. 

There  is  no  reason  to  be  found  in  the  code  of  impar 
tial  justice,  why  one  man  should  work,  while  another 
man  is  idle.  The  spendthrift  is  not  merely  content  that 
other  men  should  labor,  while  he  is  idle — he  has  recon 
ciled  himself  to  that.  But  he  is  not  satisfied  that  other 
men  should  labor  for  his  gratification ;  he  obliges  them  to 
do  this  gratuitously ;  he  trifles  with  their  expectations  ; 
he  baffles  their  hopes ;  he  subjects  them  to  a  long  suc 
cession  of  tormenting  uncertainties. 

Setting,  therefore,  out  of  the  question,  the  man  who 
subjects  himself  to  expenses  which  he  is  unable  to  dis 
charge,  it  may  prove  instructive  to  us  to  inquire  into  the 
propriety  of  the  maxim  so  currently  established  in  hu 
man  society,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  rich  man  to  live 
up  to  his  fortune. 


OO  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Industry  has  been  thought  a  pleasing  spectacle.  What 
more  delightful  than  to  see  our  country  covered  with 
corn,  and  our  ports  crowded  with  vessels  ?  What  more 
admirable  than  the  products  of  human  ingenuity?  Mag 
nificent  buildings,  plentiful  markets,  immense  cities? 
How  innumerable  the  arts  of  the  less  favored  members 
of  society,  to  extract  from  the  wealthy  some  portion  of 
their  riches  ?  How  many  paths  have  been  struck  out  for 
the  acquisition  of  money  ?  How  various  are  the  channels 
of  our  trade?  How  costly  and  curious  the  different  classes 
of  our  manufactures  ?  Is  not  this  much  better  than  that 
a  great  mass  of  society  should  wear  out  a  miserable  ex 
istence  in  idleness  and  want  ? 

It  is  thus  that  superficial  observers  have  reasoned, 
and  these  have  been  termed  the  elements  of  political 
wisdom.  It  has  been  inferred,  that  the  most  commend 
able  proceeding  in  a  man  of  wealth,  is  to  encourage  the 
manufacture  of  his  country,  and  to  spend  as  large  a  por 
tion  of  his  propeity  as  possible  in  generating  this  beau 
tiful  spectacle  of  a  multitude  of  human  beings,  indus- 
trously  employed,  well  fed,  warmly  clothed,  cleanly  and 
contented.  Another  view  of  the  subject  which  has  led 
to  the  same  conclusion,  is,  that  the  wealth  any  man  pos 
sesses  is  so  much  of  pleasure  and  happiness,  capable  of 
being  enjoyed,  partly  by  himself,  partly  by  another, 
that  it  is  his  duty  to  scatter  the  seeds  of  pleasure  and 
happiness  as  widely  as  possible ;  and  that  it  is  more  use 
ful  that  he  should  exchange  his  superfluity  for  their  la 
bor,  than  that  he  should  maintain  them  in  idleness  and 
dependence.  These  views  of  the  subject  are  both  of 
them  erroneous.  Money  is  the  representative  and  the 
means  of  exchange  to  real  commodities ;  it  is  110  real 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  OU 

commodity  itself.  The  wages  of  the  laborer  and  the  ar 
tisan  have  always  been  small ;  and  as  long  as  the  ex 
treme  inequality  of  conditions  subsists,  will  always  re 
main  so.  If  the  rich  man  would  substantially  relieve  the 
burthens  of  the  poor,  exclusive  of  the  improvement  he 
may  communicate  to  their  understanding,  or  their  tem 
per,  it  must  be  by  taking  upon  himself  a  part  of  their 
labor,  and  by  setting  them  task.  All  other  relief  is  par 
tial  and  temporary.  Three  or  four  hundred  years  ago  in 
England,  there  was  little  of  manufacture,  and  little  com 
paratively,  of  manual  labor.  Yet  the  great  proprietors 
found  then,  as  they  find  now,  that  they  could  not  centre 
the  employment  of  their  wealth  entirely  in  themselves. 
They  could  not  devour  to  their  own  share,  all  the  corn 
and  oxen,  and  sheep,  they  were  pleased  to  call  their 
property.  There  were  not  then  commodities,  decora 
tions  of  their  persons,  their  wives  and  their  houses,  suf 
ficient  to  consume  their  superfluity.  Those  which  ex 
isted  were  cumbrous  aud  durable,  a  legacy  handed  down 
from  one  generation  to  another;  not  as  now,  a  perpetual 
drain  for  wealth  and  spur  to  industry.  They  generously 
gave  away  what  they  could  not  expend,  that  it  might  not 
rot  upon  their  hands.  It  was  equitable,  however,  in  their 
idea,  that  they  should  receive  some  compensation  for 
their  benefits.  What  they  required  of  their  beneficia 
ries,  was,  that  they  should  wear  their  liveries,  and  by 
their  personal  attendance  contribute  to  the  splendor  of 
their  lords.  It  happened  then,  as  it  must  always  hap 
pen,  that  the  lower  orders  of  the  community  could  not 
be  entirely  starved  out  of  the  world. 

The  commodities  that  substantially  contribute  to  the 
subsistence  of  the  human  species,  form  a  very  short  cat- 


70  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

alogue.  They  demand  from  us  but  very  slender  por 
tion  of  industry.  If  these  only  were  produced,  and  suf 
ficiently  produced,  the  species  of  man  would  be  contin 
ued.  If  the  labour  necessarily  required  to  produce  them 
were  equitably  divided  among  the  poor,  and  still  more  if 
it  was  equitably  divided  among  all,  each  man's  share  of 
labor  would  be  light,  and  his  portion  of  leisure  would  be 
ample.  There  was  a  time  when  leisure  would  have 
been  of  small  comparative  value.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  time  will  come,  when  it  will  be  applied  to  the  most 
important  purposes.  Those  hours  which  are  not  requir 
ed  for  the  productions  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  may  be 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  understanding,  the  en 
larging  our  stock  of  knowledge,  the  refining  our  taste, 
and  thus  opening  to  us  new  and  more  exquisite  sources 
of  enjoyment.  It  is  not  necessary  that  all  our  hours  of 
leisure  should  be  dedicated  to  intellectual  pursuits ;  it  is 
probable  that  the  well  being  of  man  would  be  best  pro 
moted  by  the  production  of  some  superfluities  and  lux 
uries,  though  certainly  not  such  as  an  ill-imagined  and 
exclusive  vanity  now  teaches  us  to  admire ;  but  there  is 
no  reason  in  the  system  of  the  universe  or  the  nature  of 
man,  why  any  individual  should  be  deprived  of  the 
means  of  intellectual  cultivation. 

It  was  perhaps  necessary  that  a  period  of  monopoly 
and  oppression  should  subsist,  before  a  period  of  cultiva 
ted  equality  could  subsist.  Savages  perhaps  would  never 
have  been  excited  to  the  discovery  of  truth  and  the  in 
vention  of  art,  but  by  the  narrow  motives  which  such  a 
period  affords.  But  surely  after  the  savage  state  has 
ceased,  and  men  have  set  out  in  the  glorious  career  of 
discovery  and  invention,  monopoly  and  oppression  can- 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON.  71 

not  be  necessary  to  prevent  them  from  returning  to  a 
state  of  barbarism.  Thus  much  is  certain,  that  a  state  of 
cultivated  equality,  is  that  state  which  in  speculation  and 
theory,  appears  most  consonant  to  the  nature  of  man,  and 
most  conducive  to  the  extensive  diffusion  of  felicity. 

It  is  reasonable,  therefore,  to  take  this  state  as  a  sort  of 
polar  star,  in  our  speculation  upon  the  tendency  of  hu 
man  actions.  Without  entering  into  the  question,  whe 
ther  such  can  be  realised  in  its  utmost  extent,  we  may 
venture  to  pronounce  that  mode  of  society  best,  which 
most  nearly  approaches  this  state.  It  is  desirable  that 
there  should  be,  in  any  rank  of  society,  as  little  as  may 
be  of  that  luxury,  the  object  of  which  is  to  contribute  to 
the  spurious  gratifications  of  vanity,  that  those  who  are 
the  least  favored  with  the  gifts  of  fortune,  should  be  con 
demned  to  the  smallest  portion  of  compulsory  labor ; 
and  that  no  man  should  be  obliged  to  devote  his  life  to 
the  servitude  of  a  galley  slave  and  the  ignorance  of  the 
brute. 

According  to  this  doctrine,  which  upon  a  close  philo 
sophical  investigation,  will  prove  illustrative  of  the  ques 
tion  before  us,  how  far  does  the  conduct  of  the  rich  man 
who  lives  up  to  his  fortune  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of 
the  strict  economist  on  the  other,  contribute  to  the  placing 
of  human  beings  in  the  condition  in  which  they  ought 
to  be  placed. 

Every  man  who  invents  a  new  luxury,  adds  so  much 
to  the  quantity  of  labor  entailed  on  the  lower  orders  of 
society.  The  same  may  be  affirmed  of  every  man  who 
adds  a  new  dish  to  his  table,  or  who  imposes  a  new  tax 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  his  country.  Mr.  Macon  was 
clear  of  those  sins.  "It  is  a  gross  and  ridiculous  error," 


72  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

said  he,  on  a  certain  occasion,  "to  suppose  that  the  rich 
pay  for  any  thing.  There  was  no  wealth  in  the  world, 
except  this,  the  labour  of  man.  What  was  mis-named 
wealth,"  said  he,  "was  merely  a  power  vested  in  certain 
individuals  by  the  institutions  of  society,  to  compel  others 
to  labour  for  their  benefit.  So  much  labour  was  requi 
site  to  produce  the  necessaries  of  life;  so  much  more  to 
produce  those  superfluities  which  at  present  exist  in  any 
country.  Every  new  luxury,"  said  he,  "was  a  new 
weight  thrown  into  the  scale.  The  poor  were  scarcely 
ever  benefitted  by  this.  It  added  a  certain  portion  to  the 
mass  of  their  labour,  but  it  added  nothing  to  their  con 
veniences.  Their  wages  were  not  changed  for  the  bet 
ter.  They  are  paid  no  more  now  for  the  work  of  ten 
hours  than  before  for  the  work  of  eight.  They  support 
the  burthen,  but  they  come  in  for  no  share  of  the  fruit." 

If  a  rich  man  employ  the  poor  in  breaking  up  land 
and  cultivating  its  useful  productions,  he  may  be  their 
benefactor.  But  if  he  employ  them  in  erecting  palaces, 
in  sinking  canals,  in  laying  out  his  parks,  and  modelling 
his  pleasure  grounds,  he  will  be  found,  when  rightly  con 
sidered,  their  enemy.  He  is  adding  to  the  weight  of  op 
pression  and  vast  accumulation,  by  which  they  are  already 
sunk  beneath  the  level  of  the  brutes.  His  mistaken 
munificence  spreads  its  baneful  effects,  on  every  side,  and 
he  is  entailing  curses  on  men  he  never  saw,  and  posteri 
ty  yet  unborn. 

Such  is  the  real  tendency  of  the  conduct  of  that  so 
frequently  applauded  character,  the  rich  man,  who  lives 
up  to  his  fortune.  His  houses,  his  gardens,  his  equip 
ages,  his  horses,  the  luxury  of  his  table,  and  the  number 
of  his  servants,  arc  so  many  articles  that  may  assume  the 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  73 

name  of  munificence,  but  that  in  reality  are  but  added 
expedients  for  grinding  the  poor,  and  filling  up  the  mea 
sure  of  human  calamity. 

Mr.  Macon  recognised  that  great  principle  of  austere 
and  immutable  justice,  that  the  claims  of  the  rich  man 
are  no  more  extensive  than  those  of  the  poor,  to  the 
sumptuousness  and  pampering  of  human  existence.  He 
watched  over  his  expenditures  with  unintermitted  scru* 
pulosity;  and  though  enabled  to  indulge  himself  in 
many  luxuries,  he  had  the  courage  to  practise  a  self-denial. 

It  may  be  alleged,  that  if  Mr.  Macon  did  not  con 
sume  his  wealth  upon  himself,  that  it  would  follow  as  a 
natural  consequence,  that  he  did  not  impart  it  to  another, 
and  therefore  pertinaciously  withheld  it  from  general  use 
contrary  to  his  professed  general  principles  concerning 
the  use  of  property.  But  this  point  may  not  be  rightly 
understood  by  the  censorious.  They  do  not  apply  the 
true  development  and  definition  of  the  nature  of  wealth, 
to  illustrate  it.  Wealth  consist  in  this  only,  the  commo 
dities  raised  and  fostered  by  human  labour.  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  corn,  and  meat,  oxen  and  houses,  were  used  and 
enjoyed  by  his  cotemporaries  as  truly  and  to  as  great  an 
extent,  as  he  believed  were  conducive  to  their  well-being 
and  happiness.  He  never  hoarded  up  ,what  is  called 
money.  He  was  too  profound  a  philosopher,  and  too 
great  a  friend  of  mankind,  to  so  wretchedly  have  deceiv 
ed  himself. 

His  conduct  was  much  less  pernicious  to  mankind, 
and  much  more  nearly  conformable  to  the  unalterable 
principles  of  justice,  than  that  of  the  man  who  disburses 
his  income  in  what  has  been  termed,  a  liberal  and  spirit 
ed  style. 
7 


74  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

It  remains  to  compare  their  motives,  and  consider 
\Aich  of  them  has  familiarised  himself  most  truly  with 
the  principles  of  morality.  It  is  to  be  supposed,  when  a 
man,  like  the  person  of  splendour  and  magnificence,  is 
found  continually  offending  against  the  rights  and  adding 
to  the  miseries  of  mankind  ;  and  when  it  appears  in  ad 
dition  to  this,  that  all  his  expences  are  directed  to  the 
pampering  his  debauched  appetite  or  the  indulging  an 
ostentatious  and  arrogant  temper,  that  he  is  actuated  by 
no  very  virtuous  and  commendable  motives.  Whilst  on 
the  other  hand,  the  man  who  like  Mr.  Macon,  regulates 
his  expenditures  by  the  good  that  may  result  from  them 
to  his  fellow  creatures,  is  a  pattern  of  benevolence ;  strips 
the  world  of  its  gaudy  plumage,  and  views  it  in  its  genu 
ine  colours.  He  estimates  splendid  equipages  and  costly 
attire,  exactly  or  nearly  at  their  true  value.  He  feels 
with  acute  sensibility  the  folly  of  wasting  the  wealth  of 
a  province  upon  a  meal.  He  knows  that  a  man  may  be 
as  alert,  as  vigorous,  and  as  happy,  whose  food  is  the 
roots  of  the  earth  and  whose  drink  the  running  stream. 
His  system  drives  out  of  the  world  that  luxury,  which 
unnerves  and  debases  the  men  that  practise  it,  and  is  the 
principal  source  of  the  oppression,  ignorance  and  guilt, 
which  infests  the  face  of  earth. 

After  every  deduction,  it  will  be  found,  that  a  man 
who  lives  the  life  of  Mr.  Macon,  considers  himself  as  a 
man,  entitled  to  expend  upon  himself  only  what  the 
wants  of  man  require.  He  sees,  and  truly  sees,  the  fol 
ly  of  profusion, — and  it  is  this  perception  of  the  genuine 
principles  of  morality ;  it  is  this  consciousness  of  unassail 
able  truth,  that  supports  him  in  the  system  of  conduct  he 
has  chosen.  Were  it  not  for  this  he  could  not  submit  to 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  75 

the  uniform  practise  of  self-denial,  and  the  general  ob 
loquy  he  encounters  from  a  world  of  which  he  is  com 
paratively  the  benefactor.  Such  appears  to  be  the  genu 
ine  result  of  the  comparison  between  the  votary  of  judi 
cious  economy,  and  the  man  of  profusion. 

The  use  of  wealth  is  no  doubt  a  science  attended  with 
uncommon  difficulties.  But  it  is  not  less  evident  that  by 
a  master  in  the  science,  it  may  be  applied,  to  cheer  the 
miserable,  to  relieve  the  oppressed,  to  assist  the  manly 
adventure,  to  advance  science,  and  to  encourage  art. 
Such  was  the  use,  which  Mr.  Macon  manifested  in  the 
application  of  his  superfluities.  And  though  the  poor 
imagine  they  can  very  easily  tell  in  what  manner,  a  rich 
man  ought  to  dispose  of  his  wealth,  yet  the  poor  in  Mr. 
Macon's  neighbourhood  never  could  impute  to  him,  if  he 
did  not  act  towards  them  in  this  respect  as  they  would 
have  him,  the  want  of  will  to  perform  his  duty  or  know 
ledge  as  to  what  that  duty  prescribed. 

A  rich  man  guided  by  the  genuine  principles  of  vir 
tue,  would  be  munificent,  though  not  with  that  spuri 
ous  munificence,  that  have  so  often  usurped  the  nam* 
It  may  however  be  doubted  whether  the  conduct  of  tl 
miser,  who  wholly  abstains  from  the  use  of  riches,  be  r 
more  advantageous  to  mankind,  than  the  conduct  of  tiic 
man  who,  with  honorable  intentions  is  continually  mis 
applying  his  wealth  to  what  he  calls  public  benefits  and 
charitable  uses.      It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  the 
prejudice  and  folly  of  the  world  has  frequently  bestowed 
the  epithet  of  miser  upon  a  man  merely  for  the  parsi 
mony  and  simplicity  of  his  living ;  who  has  been  found 
whenever  a  real  and  unquestionable  occasion  occurred, 


76  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

to  be  actuated  by  the  best  charities  and  the  most  liberal 
spirit  in  his  treatment  of  others.  Such  a  man  might 
answer  his  columniators  in  the  words  of  Lewis  the  twelfth 
of  France,  "I  had  rather  my  countrymen  should  laugh 
at  my  parsimony,  than  weep  for  my  oppression  and  in 
justice," 


LIFE   OF   NATHANIEL   MACON.  77 


CHAPTER  XI. 

POSSESSING  those  expansive  affections  that  open  the 
human  soul,  and  cause  one  man  to  identify  himself  with 
the  pleasures  and  pains  of  his  fellows,  Mr.  Macon's 
treatment  to  his  slaves  was  an  example  to  the  whole  sur 
rounding  country.  Never  had  slaves  a  kinder  master. 
In  every  thing  connected  with  their  health  and  comfort, 
he  made  ample  provision ; — in  food,  in  raiment,  in  bed 
ding,  and  dwellings.  In  their  sickness,  his  attentions  to 
them  were  those  of  a  kind  and  tender  friend;  nor  did  he 
neglect  their  moral  instruction  and  discipline.  He  es 
tablished,  at  an  early  period,  regular  rules  by  which  they 
were  to  be  managed  and  governed,  of  which  rules  they 
were  well  informed  and  from  which  he  never  departed. 

To  a  man  wrho  had  studied  philosophy  in  the  school  of 
science  arid  retirement,  who  had  drawn  his  lessons  from 
this  store-house  of  reason,  and  was  unacquainted  with  the 
practices  of  mankind,  the  plantations  of  the  rich  in  our 
country  would  afford  an  impressive  spectacle.  Inhabited 
by  two  classes  of  beings,  or  more  accurately  speaking, 
by  two  sets  of  men  drawn  from  two  distant  stages  of  bar 
barism  and  refinement.  He  would  see  the  rich  man 
with  the  members  of  his  family,  persons  accomplished 
with  all  the  elegance,  taste  and  the  variety  of  useful  and 
agreeable  information, — whilst  his  servants,  destitute  of 
all  these  blessings,  disturbed  not  the  tranquility  of  their 
7* 


78  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

master  who  pass  them  with  as  little  consciousness  of  true 
benevolence,  and  as  little  sense  of  unrestrained  sympa 
thy,  as  the  mandarins  upon  his  chimney-pieces.  His 
fortune  to  be  expended  between  two  different  classes  of 
beings  dwelling  upon  the  same  premises:  The  first  class 
consisting  of  the  members  of  his  own  family;  the  second, 
of  the  servants.  The  individuals  of  the  first  class  have 
each  a  purse  well  furnished.  There  is  scarcely  a  luxury 
in  which  they  are  not  at  liberty  to  indulge.  There  is 
scarcely  a  caprice  which  crosses  their  fancy,  that  they 
cannot  gratify.  They  are  attired  with  every  thing  that 
fashion  or  taste  can  prescribe,  and  all  in  its  finest  texture 
and  its  newest  gloss.  They  are  incensed  with  the  most 
costly  perfumes.  They  are  enabled  to  call  into  play 
every  expedient  that  can  contribute  to  health,  the  fresh 
ness  of  their  complexions,  and  the  sleekness  of  their 
skin.  They  are  masters  of  their  time,  can  pass  from  one 
voluntary  labour  to  another,  and  resort  as  their  fancy 
prompts  them  to  every  splendid  and  costly  amusement. 
The  wealth  of  each  servant  perhaps  not  often  amounting 
to  ten  dollars.  He  can  scarcely  obtain  for  himself  an 
occasional  amusement ;  or  if  he  were  smitten  with  the 
desire  of  knowledge,  the  means  of  instruction  are  beyond 
his  reach  or  daring.  But  bound  to  be  content  with  his 
sordid  meal,  the  purchase  of  which  for  a  whole  week, 
would  not  furnish  out  the  most  insignificant  dish  for  his 
master's  table. 

This  monstrous  association,  and  union  of  wealth  and 
poverty,  of  want  and  plenty  together,  is  one  of  the  most 
astonishing  exhibitions  that  the  human  imagination  can 
figure  to  itself.  It  is  voluntary,  however,  at  least,  on  the 
part  of  the  master.  If  it  were  compulsorily  imposed 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  79 

upon  him,  there  is  no  cheerfulness  and  gaiety  of  mind, 
that  could  stand  up  against  the  melancholy  scene.  It 
would  be  a  revival  of  the  barbarity  of  Mezetius,  the  link 
ing  a  living  body  and  a  dead  one  together.  It  would 
cure  the  most  obdurate  heart  of  its  partiality  for  the  dis 
tinction  of  ranks  in  society.  But,  as  it  is,  and  as  the  hu 
man  mind  is  constituted,  there  is  nothing  however  mon 
strous,  however  intolerable  to  sober  and  impartial  reason, 
to  which  custom  does  not  render  us  callous. 

There  is  another  circumstance,  the  object  of  the  sen 
ses,  characteristic  of  this  distinction  of  classes  living  on 
the  same  premises,  which  though  inferior  to  the  preced 
ing,  deserves  to  be  mentioned.  We  amuse  ourselves, 
suppose,  with  viewing  the  mansion  of  a  man  of  wealth 
and  rank  in  our  country.  We  admire  the  splendour  of 
the  apartments,  and  the  costliness  of  their  decorations. 
We  pass  from  room  to  room,  and  find  them  all  spacious, 
lofty  and  magnificent.  From  their  appearance,  our  minds 
catch  a  sensation  of  tranquil  grandeur.  They  are  so 
carefully  polished,  so  airy,  so  perfectly  light,  that  we  feel 
as  it  were  impossible  to  be  melancholy  in  them.  We 
are  even  fatigued  with  their  variety. 

We  will  imagine  that  after  having  surveyed  the  whole 
of  this  mansion  and  its  appurtenances,  the  fancy  strikes 
us  of  vie\ving  the  servants'  offices,  dwellings  and  modes 
of  living.  We  will  pass  at  a  small  distance  perhaps  to 
the  entrance  of  some  little  dirty,  smoky  hovel,  scarcely 
deserving  the  name  of  a  dwelling,  and  in  creeping  along 
some  dark  passages,  will  go  from  room  to  room ;  where 
nothing  presents  itself  but  gloom  and  despondency.  The 
light  of  day  never  having  fully  entered  the  apartments. 
Where  the  breath  of  heaven  could  not  freely  play  among 


80  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACOX. 

them.  Where  there  would  be  in  the  very  air  something 
that  felt  musty  and  stagnant  to  our  senses.  The  furni 
ture  frugal,  unexceptionable  in  itself,  but  strangely  con 
trasted  with  the  splendour  of  the  master's  mansion,  and 
a  general  air  of  slovenliness  and  negligence,  that  amply 
represents  to  us  the  depression  and  humiliated  state  of 
mind  of  its  tenant. 

No  such  pictures  as  these,  which  are  almost  sufficient 
to  drive  the  truly  benevolent  to  the  depths  of  groves  and 
the  bosom  of  nature,  to  weep  over  the  madness  of  arti 
ficial  society,  could  be  drawn  from  a  visit  to  Mr.  Macon's 
plantation.  There  we  should  have  found  instead  of  the 
lofty  and  magnificent  mansion  of  splendid  apartments 
and  costly  decorations,  a  neat  little  single-storied  framed 
house,  sixteen  feet  square,  with  an  up-stairs  and  cellar, 
furnished  in  the  plainest  and  least  costly  style,  for  his 
own  dwelling,  with  a  sufficient  number  of  out-houses  to 
accommodate  visitors  comfortably.  And  on  examining 
the  dwellings  of  his  slaves,  instead  of  the  smoky  hovel 
of  dirt  and  gloom  and  discontent,  we  have  described 
above,  \ve  should  there  have  found,  snug,  well-built 
log  houses  about  the  same  size,  furnish'd  with  all  the 
common  necessaries  of  convenient  living, — much  better 
by  far  than  many  of  the  poor  classes  of  the  whites,  who 
live  in  many  parts  of  our  country.  Mr.  Macon  was  as 
compunctious  in  his  duty  to  his  slaves,  as  he  was  inflex 
ible  in  enforcing  the  discharge  of  theirs  to  himself. 

The  rule  of  placing  ourselves  in  the  several  situations 
of  the  persons  concerned,  and  enquiring  what  we  should 
expect,  is  of  excellent  use  for  directing,  enforcing  and 
restraining  our  actions,  and  for  producing  in  us  a  steady, 
constant  sense  of  what  is  fit  and  equitable.  This  rule  of 


LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL   MACON.  81 

duty,  comprehends  every  rule  of  justice  without  excep 
tion.  It  comprehends  all  the  relative  duties,  arising 
from  the  more  permanent  relations  of  parent  and  child, 
of  master  and  servant,  of  magistrate  and  subject,  of  hus 
band  and  wife,  or  from  the  more  transient  relations  of 
rich  and  poor,  of  buyer  and  seller,  of  debtor  and  credi 
tor,  of  benefactor  and  beneficiary,  of  friend  and  enemy. 
It  comprehends  every  duty  of  charity  and  humanity  and 
even  of  courtesy  and  good  manners.  Mr.  Macon  whose 
intention  was  invariably  to  be  guided  by  this  rule,  never 
deviated  from  the  principle  of  his  duty  in  any  of  these 
relations,  unless  from  an  error  in  his  judgment  which 
seldom  happened. 

The  evil  of  slavery  itself  is  incurable  at  the  present 
day — and  all  the  fanaticism  of  the  North  cannot  apply 
its  remedy.  Those  persons  are  to  be  commended  who 
like  Mr.  Macon  endeavour  to  diminish  its  sting.  But 
others  will  excite  in  an  enlightened  observer  a  smile  of 
pity  for  their  simplicity,  when  they  pretend  they  can 
totally  extract  the  evil.  It  is  a  radical  defect,  originating 
in  the  political  institutions  of  our  British  ancestors.  En 
gland  had  been  actively  engaged  in  the  slave  trade  near 
ly  fifty  years,  when  the  first  settlements  were  effected 
in  Virginia.  Slavery  was  early  introduced  into  the 
American  colonies.  The  first,  about  twenty  in  number, 
were  brought  to  Virginia,  in  1619.  The  importation  of 
them  gradually  increased,  and  although  principally 
bought  by  the  southern  planters,  slaves  were  soon  found 
in  great  numbers,  in  all  the  colonies.  A  disgust  towards 
this  traffic  appeared  very  early  in  the  colonies  ;  but  it 
was  countenanced  and  patronized  by  the  English  gov 
ernment,  and  thus  introduced  into  and  fastened  upon  the 


82  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

country  without  the  power  on  the  part  of  the  colonies  to 
arrest  it.  These  are  facts  for  foreigners,  particularly  the 
English,  who  are  always  canting  and  pratling  (to  use  one 
of  their  common-place  phrases)  upon  the  ''unnatural 
and  unaccountable  custom  of  enslaving  mankind." 

Then,  so  far  as  a  comparison  between  Europe  and 
America  is  concerned,  a  moment's  reflection  and  exami 
nation  will  shew  the  exceedingly  negative  merit  of  the 
former.  Is  it  not  a  fact,  that  the  policy  of  all  America 
was  for  more  than  a  century  controlled  by  Europe,  and 
was  not  this  scourge  introduced  under  that  policy?  Has 
this  policy,  in  Europe,  been  yet  abondoned  ?  Does  En 
gland  or  France,  for  instance,  at  this  moment,  own  a  foot 
of  land  on  earth,  where  black  slaves  can  be  profitable, 
and  where  they  do  not  use  them?  It  is  absurd  for 
France  or  for  England  to  say,  we  have  no  slaves  in  our 
respective  kingdoms,  properly  so  called,  when  every 
body  knows  that  the  one  is  at  this  moment  filled  with 
white  beggars,  and  the  other  with  paupers  who  are  sup 
ported  by  the  public  purse,  and  both  for  the  simple  rea 
son  that  they  are  overflowing  with  population.  It  is 
true,  that  two  centuries  ago,  when  they  had  more  room, 
they  did  not  import  negroes  from  Guiania  ;  but  it  is  also, 
just  as  true,  that  they  sent  their  ships  to  convey  them  to 
colonies  which  are  situated  in  climates  where  they  might 
repay  them  for  their  trouble.  It  is  puerile  as  it  is  unjust, 
therefore,  for  these  two  countries  (most  others  might  be 
included)  to  pretend  to  any  exclusive  exemption  from 
the  sin  or  shame  of  slavery. 

Slavery  has  existed  from  the  foundation  of  society, 
and  will  ever  continue  to  exist  in  all  countries  if  not  ab 
solute,  in  some  shape  or  other.  And  as  to  making  it  an 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  83 

abstract  question  at  this  late  period,  is  out  of  season  and 
shows  a  great  want  of  reflection  and  sound  sense.  Its 
existence  as  a  state  institution  is  acknowledged  by  the 
federal  constitution  of  our  country,  and  the  laws  by 
which  we  are  governed.  In  the  spirit  of  conciliation 
and  fraternal  feeling,  which  actuated  our  fathers  in  the 
establishment  of  our  confederacy,  the  rights  of  the  south 
ern  states,  in  their  slaves,  were  guaranteed  and  secured. 
A  federal  union  could  have  been  formed  on  no  other  ba 
sis.  Those  people  of  the  North,  therefore,  who,  regard 
less  of  these  considerations,  and  of  their  obligations  as 
parties  to  the  federal  compact,  engaged  as  they  say  in 
this  great  controversy  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
should  recollect  that  they  are  not  answerable,  morally, 
legally,  or  constitutionally,  for  slavery  in  the  Southern 
states.  They  have  less  right  to  interfere  with  it  here, 
than  with  slavery  in  a  foreign  land,  because  they  are 
not  only  under  the  obligations  of  the  law  of  nations,  but 
under  the  constitutional  obligations  of  a  compact  of  non 
interference,  irreversibly  interwoven  with  the  most  glo 
rious  result  of  the  American  revolution.  The  people  of 
the  Southern  states  have  granted  them  no  jurisdiction 
over  the  subject  within  their  limits.  They  had  jurisdic 
tion  over  it  within  their  own  limits,  and  by  a  gradual 
and  slow  process,  they  abolish' d  it.  Beyond  that  they 
are  not  answerable.  But  if,  rashly,  madly,  in  violation 
of  their  constitutional  obligations,  they  undertake  to  in 
terfere  with  what  is  not  rightfully  under  their  control, 
they  are  answerable  for  the  consequences,  and  the  res 
ponsibility  will  be  such  as  no  man,  in  full  view  of  them 
when  fully  developed,  will  in  his  calmer  moments  of 
sober  reflection,  be  willing  to  lie  under.  The  efforts 


84  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL   MACON. 

which  they  are  engaged  in,  could  they  be  successful, 
would  subvert  the  domestic  institutions  of  their  South 
ern  neighbours.  They  are  certainly  under  the  influence 
of  a  misdirected  philanthropy.  This  disregard  of  every 
consideration  due  from  one  portion  of  the  union  to  anoth 
er,  must  be  lamented  by  every  friend  of  his  country,  no 
matter  in  what  portion  of  it  he  may  live.  It  tends  to 
disturb  the  relations  created  by  the  federal  compact,  and 
is  at  war  with  its  spirit  and  design. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  85 


CHAPTER   XII. 

WE  have  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter  that  Mr. 
Macon  began  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  most  popular  man 
of  his  age  in  the  congressional  district  in  which  he  lived. 
His  popularity  continued  to  increase,  until  he  became  a 
candidate,  and  was  elected  to  congress  in  1791.  This 
was  the  second  congress  held  under  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States ;  and  many  of  the  difficulties  neces* 
sarily  incident  to  the  first  arrangements  of  a  new  govern 
ment,  for  an  extensive  country,  had  been  happily  termi 
nated  by  the  zealous  and  judicious  exertions  of  his  pre 
decessors.  Congress  met  on  the  24th  of  October,  Mr. 
Macon  took  his  seat  on  the  28th ;  and  his  early  respecta 
bility  in  the  house  of  representatives  is  manifest  from  his 
being  appointed  on  the  15th  of  November,  together  with 
Mr.  Page  and  Mr.  Murray,  the  former  from  Maryland, 
and  the  latter  from  Virginia,  to  prepare  and  bring  in  a 
bill,  pursuant  to  a  resolution  fixing  the  number  of  rep 
resentatives  in  proportion  of  one  representative  for  every 
thirty  thousand  inhabitants.  We  mention  this  circum 
stance  to  show  that  he  appeared  to  have  attracted  atten 
tion  and  made  an  impression  almost  on  his  first  arrival. 

Mr.  Macon's  unchequered  consistency, — the  frank  and 

manly  avowal  of  his  opinions  on  all  proper  occasions, — 

the  prominent  and  distinguished  part  it  was  his  duty  to 

take  in  support  of  every  republican  principle,  whilst 

8 


86  tIFE    OF    NATHANIEL 

serving  as  a  member  in  the  legislature  of  his  own  state, 
sufficiently  proclaimed  his  political  creed  at  that  day* 
His  political  principles  were  deep  rooted.  He  became 
attached  to  them  from  early  examination,  and  was  con 
firmed  in  their  correctness  from  mature  reason  and  seri 
ous  reflection.  They  were  the  principles  of  genuine 
republicanism ;  and  to  them  through  life  he  gave  a  hearty, 
consistent,  and  available  support.  With  them  he  never 
compromised;  and  the  greater  the  pressure  the  more 
pertinaciously  he  stood  by  them.  Adopting,  to  the 
fullest  extent,  the  doctrines  which  allowed  to  man  the 
capacity  and  the  right  to  self-government,  he  never 
would  consent,  however  strongly  the  law  of  circumstan 
ces  might  demand  it,  to  exercise  any  of  the  doubtful 
powers  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  Jeal 
ous  of  federal  authority,  his  most  vigilant  efforts  were 
directed  towards  restraining  it  within  due  limits.  A 
democrat  by  nature,  as  well  as  education,  he  was  per 
suaded  that  on  the  popular  part  of  every  government 
depends  its  real  force,  its  welfare,  its  securities,  its  per 
manence,  and  its  adaptation  to  the  happiness  of  the 
people. 

The  character  of  the  federal  constitution,  and  the  ori 
gin  of  the  two  political  parties  which  then  divided  and 
will  probably  forever  divide  the  American  people,  may 
be  learnt  from  the  following  concise  history  of  its  for 
mation. 

A  portion  of  the  members  of  the  convention  which 
formed  the  federal  constitution,  from  a  strong  partiality  for 
the  British  form  of  government,  desired  to  approximate 
as  near  that  system  as  public  opinion  in  America  would 
allow.  From  them  came  propositions  for  a  president 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  87 

and  senate  for  life,  elections  for  long  terms,  and  other 
fundamental  arrangements,  which  should  remove  the 
government  as  far  as  possible  from  popular  control. 
Another  portion  of  its  members,  having  more  confidence 
in  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  people,  advocated 
the  principle  of  making  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  elected  for  short  terms.  After  the  constitution 
was  formed,  those  two  parties  differed  widely  in  the 
views  they  took  of  the  tendency  of  the  government ; 
the  one  believing  that  it  was  towards  consolidation,  arid 
the  other  to  disunion ;  and  the  one  accordingly  believing 
that  the  danger  was  despotism  in  the  head,  and  the  other 
anarchy  in  the  members.  Hence  the  radical  differences 
of  opinions,  and  the  different  light  in  which  the  two  par' 
ties  viewed  the  character  of  the  system.  The  republi 
can  party  held  it  to  be  federative  in  its  character,  and 
formed  by  the  states  in  their  sovereign  capacity,  and  adop 
ted  for  their  mutual  security  and  happiness, — while 
many  of  their  adversaries  regarded  it  as  a  great  national 
republic  formed  by  the  American  people  in  the  aggre- 
gate,  to  promote  the  interest  of  the  majority,  instead  of 
the  several  states  composing  it. 

When  the  government  was  put  in  operation  under  the 
new  constitution,  each  party  adopted  rules  of  construc 
tion  calculated  to  secure  their  peculiar  objects,  and  ad*> 
vance  their  cherished  principles,  in  its  practical  opera 
tion.  Unfortunately  the  execution  of  certain  vital  parts 
of  the  system  was  entrusted  to  men  who  had  no  faith 
in  its  stability,  without  essential  changes,  removing  it 
further  from  the  influence  of  the  people  and  the  states  ; 
and  they  immediately  set  themselves  to  work  to  accom 
plish,  by  a  broad  construction,  that  which  was  jn 


88  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

opinion,  essential  to  the  continued  existence  of  the  gov 
ernment;  but  was  unattainable  through  a  direct  appeal 
to  the  states  and  people  for  amendments  to  the  constitu 
tion.  The  other  party  maintaining  their  faith  in  the 
constitution  as  it  is,  insisted  that  the  constitution  should 
be  construed  strictly  according  to  its  honest  meaning  as 
adopted  by  the  states ;  and  that  changes  in  the  system 
when  found  necessary,  should  be  sought  through  appli 
cations  for  amendments,  rather  than  through  new,  vague, 
and  latitudinous  constructions  which,  in  effect  would 
accumulate  unlimited  powers  in  a  government  notori 
ously  limited  by  those  who  had  created  it.  Mr.  Macon 
was  of  the  latter  party,  which  finally  gained  the  entire 
ascendency,  and  have  maintained  it  ever  since,  with 
some  few  deviations.  He  was  opposed  to  yielding  to 
the  general  government  any  powers  except  those  ex 
pressly  granted  by  the  constitution.  He  believed  in  a 
definition  and  limitation  by  law,  as  far  as  practicable 
of  the  duties  of  public  functionaries ;  a  strict  system  of 
accountability  in  all  public  servants,  and  a  rigid  system 
of  economy  in  all  public  expenditures, — that  they  should 
be  confined  to  the  absolute  wants  of  the  government. 
This  policy  Mr.  Macon  believed  was  indispensible  to 
keep  the  government  within  the  limits  necessary  to  se 
cure  and  perpetuate  liberty  to  the  people.  He  believed 
that  there  is  nothing  that  can  so  much  endanger  the  free 
institutions  of  a  country,  and  the  freedom  of  its  citizens, 
as  a  rich  and  powerful  government.  If  the  people  be 
rich  and  happy,  the  government  must  be  poor.  If  the 
government  be  rich  and  powerful,  the  people  will  be 
poor  and  weak ;  for  the  simple  reasons  that  all  rich  gov 
ernments  are  made  so  by  the  wealth  of  the  people,  and 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

whatever  is  taken  from  them  to  enrich  the  government, 
must  make  them  proportionately  poor ;  and  in  proportion 
to  the  wealth  of  the  government,  so  will  it  be  powerful ; 
and  in  proportion  to  its  power,  so  will  the  people  be  weak. 
If  the  government  is  the  master,  the  people  will  be  slaves ; 
for  both  cannot  be  rich ;  both  cannot  be  powerful ;  nor 
can  both  be  masters. 

Mr.  Macon  was  thirty  two  years  of  age  when  he  was 
elected  to  the  house  of  representatives,  and  served  in 
that  capacity  uninterruptedly  under  successive  elections, 
from  1791  till  the  winter  of  1815; — when  he  was  chosen 
by  the  legislature  of  his  state,  a  senator  in  congress, 
without  his  solicitation,  and  in  one  sense  against  his  wrish, 
for  his  maxim  was  "frequent  elections  and  accountability 
at  short  intervals."  He  resigned  his  seat  as  a  member 
of  the  house  of  representatives  whilst  he  was  at  Wash 
ington,  and  assumed  his  new  station  as  senator  in  Janu 
ary,  in  1816.  On  that  occasion  he  declined  and  rejected 
double  pay  for  travelling,  although  abundant  precedents 
entitled  him  to  it.  The  legislature  continued  to  him 
this  honourable  distinction  and  high  trust,  till  November, 
1828,  when  he  was  induced  by  a  sense  of  duty,  spring 
ing  out  of  his  advanced  age  and  infirmities,  to  resign, — 
resigning  also  at  the  same  time  his  offices  of  justices  of  the 
peace,  and  trustee  of  the  university  of  North  Carolina, 
both  of  which  he  filled  for  many  years.  During  his 
congressional  career  he  was  chosen,  1801,  at  the  first 
session  of  the  7th  congress,  speaker  of  the  house  of  rep 
resentatives,  and  continued  to  preside  over  the  delibera 
tions  of  that  body  till  the  tenth  congress.  The  duties  of 
the  chair  were  discharged  by  him  writh  distinguished 
abilities,  and  an  impartiality  wrhich  secured  the  esteem 
8* 


90  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

and  affection  of  his  political  friends,  and  won  the  confi 
dence  and  admiration  of  his  political  adversaries.  Not 
being  able,  from  severe  indisposition,  to  attend  at  the 
commencement  of  the  tenth  congress,  a  new  incumbent 
was  elected  to  the  chair.  He  was  several  times  elected 
president  pro.  tern,  of  the  senate ;  and  the  last  time  chosen 
to  that  station,  he  declined  its  acceptance.  The  office 
of  post  master  general  was  twice  offered  him ; — but 
office,  however  high,  or  emolument  however  great,  had 
no  charm  for  him.  In  1835  his  fellow  citizens  again 
called  him  from  his  cherished  retirement,  by  electing 
him  a  member  of  the  convention,  charged  with  the  im 
portant  duty  of  revising  and  reforming  the  constitution 
of  his  native  state,  of  which  body  he  was  chosen  presi 
dent  by  an  unanimous  vote.  In  1836,  he  was  chosen 
an  elector  of  the  president  and  vice  president,  on  the 
republican  ticket;  this  was  the  last  of  his  public  services. 
In  this  catalogue  of  the  important  public  duties,  all  of 
which  were  so  faithfully  discharged  by  him,  it  is  some 
thing  very  remarkable,  that  he  never  sought  any  of  them 
himself.  He  was  never  known  to  use  any  intrigue, 
management  or  flattery,  or  to  adopt  any  of  the  common 
means  of  procuring  any  man's  support  during  his  whole 
career  of  matchless  popularity.  Conscious  of  possess 
ing  the  virtues  that  deserved  their  favours,  he  was  not 
so  meanly  ambitious  of  public  trust,  or  so  intent  on  per 
sonal  distinction,  as  to  forget  the  ends  for  which  it  was 
worth  possessing. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  91 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

DURING  the  twenty-five  years  which  Mr.  Macon  serv 
ed  in  the  house  of  representatives,  we  find  him  constant 
ly  supporting  the  true  and  genuine  principles  of  demo 
cracy — supporting  the  constitution,  as  derived  from  the 
people,  directly  expressed  by  their  free  suffrages  ;  where 
the  principal  executive  functionaries,  and  those  of  the 
legislature,  were  removed  by  short  periods ;  where  un 
der  the  character  of  jurors,  they  exercise  in  person,  the 
greatest  portion  of  the  judiciary  powers ;  where  the 
laws  are  constantly  so  formed  and  administered  as  to 
bear  with  equal  weight  and  favor  on  all,  restraining  no 
man  in  the  pursuit  of  honest  industry,  and  securing  to 
every  one  the  property  which  that  acquires. 

Mr.  Macon  was  never,  what  is  called  at  the  present 
day,  a  thorough-going  party  man.  He  was  of  a  different 
order  of  politicians.  In  political  associations,  he  knew  the 
object  of  each  man  was  to  identify  his  creed  with  that 
of  his  neighbor. 

To  learn  the  cant  of  a  party,  we  dare  not  leave  our 
mind  at  large  in  the  field  of  inquiry,  lest  we  should  ar 
rive  at  some  tenet  distasted  by  our  party.  We  have  no 
temptation  to  inquire.  Party  has  a  more  powerful  ten 
dency,  than  perhaps  any  other  circumstance  in  human 
affairs,  to  render  the  mind  quiescent  and  stationary.  In 
stead  of  making  each  man  an  individual,  which  the  in- 


9'2  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

terest  of  the  whole  requires,  it  resolves  all  understand 
ing  into  one  common  mass,  and  subtracts  from  each  the 
varieties  that  could  alone  distinguish  him  from  a  brute 
machine.  Having  learned  the  creed  of  our  party,  we 
have  no  longer  any  employment  for  those  faculties,  which 
might  lead  us  to  detect  its  errors.  We  have  arrived,  in 
our  own  opinion,  at  the  last  page  of  the  volume  of  truth; 
and  all  that  remains,  is  by  some  means  to  effect  the 
adoption  of  our  sentiments,  as  the  standard  of  right  to 
the  whole  race  of  mankind.  The  indefatigable  votary 
of  justice  and  truth,  will  adopt  a  mode  of  proceeding, 
the  opposite  of  this.  He  will  mix  at  large  among  his 
species ;  he  will  converse  with  men  of  all  orders  and 
parties ;  he  will  fear  to  attach  himself  in  his  intercourse 
to  any  particular  set  of  men,  lest  his  thoughts  should 
become  insensibly  warped,  and  he  should  make  to  him 
self  a  world  of  petty  dimensions,  instead  of  that  liberal 
and  various  scene  in  which  nature  has  permitted  him  to 
expatiate.  In  every  numerous  association  of  men  there 
will  be  some  portion  of  rivalship  and  ambition.  Those 
persons  who  stand  forward  in  the  assembly,  will  be  anx 
ious  to  increase  the  numbers  of  their  favours  and  adher 
ents.  This  anxiety  will  necessarily  engender  some  de 
gree  of  art.  It  is  unavoidable,  that  in  thinking  much  of 
the  public,  they  should  not  be  led  by  this  propensity  to 
think  much  also  of  themselves.  In  the  propositions  they 
bring  forward  ;  in  the  subjects  they  discuss ;  in  the  side 
they  espouse  of  these  subjects,  they  will  inevitably  be 
biased  by  the  reflection,  what  will  be  most  acceptable 
to  their  partizans,  and  popular  with  their  hearers.  There 
is  a  sort  of  partiality  to  particular  men  that  is  commend 
able.  We  ought  to  honor  usefulness  and  adhere  to 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  93 

worth.  But  the  partiality  which  is  disingenuously  culti 
vated  by  weakness  on  both  sides,  is  not  commendable. 
The  partiality,  which  grows  out  of  a  mutual  surrender  of 
the  understanding,  where  the  leader  first  resigns  the  in 
tegrity  of  his  judgment,  that  he  may  cherish  and  take 
advantage  of  the  defects  of  his  followers,  bears  an  un 
favourable  aspect  upon  the  common  welfare.  In  this 
scene,  truth  cannot  gain;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  forgotten, 
that  error,  a  more  accommodating  principle,  may  be  ex 
hibited  to  advantage,  and  serve  the  personal  ends  of  its 
professors. 

In  the  assembly  of  a  set  of  people  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  and  propagating  party  principles,  conten 
tions,  disputes,  and  long  consultations  about  matters  of 
the  most  trivial  importance,  are  the  prominent  features 
attendant  on  such  associations.  Every  human  being 
abounds,  and  ought  to  abound,  in  his  own  sense.  The 
business  upon  such  occasions,  is  to  twist  and  distort  the 
sense  of  each,  so  that,  though  they  were  all  different  at 
first,  they  may  in  the  end  be  all  alike.  Is  any  proposi 
tion,  letter,  or  declaration,  to  be  drawn  up  in  the  name  of 
the  whole, — perhaps  it  is  confided  to  one  man  at  first,  but 
it  is  amended,  altered  and  metamorphosed  according  to 
the  fancy  of  many  ;  till  at  last,  what  once  perhaps  was 
reasonable,  comes  out  the  most  inextricable  jargon. 

The  appetite  perpetually  vexing  the  mind  of  political 
associators,  is  that  of  doing  something  that  their  associa 
tion  may  not  fall  into  insignificance.  Affairs  must  wait 
upon  them,  and  not  they  wait  upon  affairs.  They  are 
not  content  to  act,  only  when  some  public  emergence 
seems  to  require  their  interference,  and  point  out  to 
them  a  just  method  of  proceeding;  they  must  make  the 


94  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

emergence  to  satisfy  the  recklessness  of  their  disposition. 
Thus  they  are  ever  at  hand  to  mar  the  tranquil ity  of 
science,  and  the  free  but  unobserved  progress  of  truth. 
They  terrify  the  rest  of  the  community  from  boldness  of 
opinion,  and  chain  them  down  to  their  prejudices,  by 
the  alarm  which  is  excited  by  their  turbulence  of  char 
acter. 

Could  an  adequate  example  of  the  advantages  of  po 
litical  discussion,  undebauched  by  political  enmity  and 
vehemence,  be  set  by  the  wise  men  of  any  nation,  the 
beauty  of  the  spectacle  would  soon  render  it  contagious. 
Every  man  would  commune  with  his  neighbor.  Every 
man  would  be  eager  to  tell  and  hear  what  the  interest  of 
all  require  them  to  know.  The  bolts  and  fortifications  of 
the  temple  of  truth  would  be  removed.  The  craggy 
steep  of  science,  which  it  was  before  difficult  to  ascend, 
would  be  levelled.  Knowledge  would  be  accessible  to 
all.  Wisdom  would  be  the  inheritance  of  man,  and 
none  would  be  excluded  from  it  but  by  their  own  heed- 
lessness  and  prodigality.  Truth,  and  above  all,  political 
truth,  is  not  hard  of  acquisition,  but  from  the  supercil- 
Housness  of  its  possessors.  It  has  been  slow  and  tedious 
of  improvement,  because  the  study  of  it  has  been  rele 
gated  to  doctors  and  civilians.  It  has  produced  little  ef 
fect  upon  the  practice  of  mankind,  because  it  has  not 
been  allowed  a  plain  and  direct  appeal  to  their  under 
standings.  Remove  these  obstacles;  render  it  the  com* 
mon  property ;  bring  it  into  daily  use  ;  and  we  may  rea 
sonably  promise  ourselves  consequences  of  the  most  in 
estimable  character. 

The  indiscriminate  adhesion  to  party,  and  uniform  sup 
port  of  party  arrangements,  encourage  the  leaders  to  pro- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  95 

ceed  to  extremities,  and  to  adopt  violent  and  pernicious 
measures  which  the  good  sense  of  their  followers  may  re 
probate,  but  from  which  they  have  not  fortitude  enough 
to  withhold  their  support.  This  has  been,  in  all  countries, 
the  most  frightful  of  the  consequences  of  the  unholy  and 
deleterious  spirit  of  faction.  Men  originally  of  the  purest 
hearts  and  best  intention,  are  by  this  ignis  fatuus  gra 
dually  corrupted,  and  led,  step  by  step,  to  unite  in  acts, 
at  which  they  would,  at  the  commencement  of  their  ca 
reer,  have  recoiled  with  horror  and  affright.  It  is  a  sound 
political  maxim,  that  a  thorough  going  party  man  never 
was  a  perfectly  honest  politician ;  for  there,  perhaps, 
never  yet  was  a  party  free  from  errors  and  crimes,  more 
or  less  gross,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  folly  or  the  wick 
edness  of  its  leaders. 

This  blind  and  uncompromising  adherence  to  party  has 
always  been  looked  upon  by  such  men  as  Mr.  Macon, 
as  one  of  the  worse  features  in  the  situation  of  our 
country. 

United,  we  are  able  to  protect  ourselves  without 
any  foreign  aid,  against  all  attacks  from  abroad.  But 
agitated  by  factious  opposition  to  our  government,  which 
is  our  only  rallying  point  against  danger,  and  weakened 
by  internal  dissentions,  we  invite  the  invasion  of  for 
eign  powers ;  expose  ourselves  to  fall  an  easy  prey, 
or  to  form  unequal  alliances  for  our  safety.  Let  us 
seriously  ask  ourselves  who  is  it  that  do  most  to 
wards  increasing  our  expenses  and  our  taxes ;  invit 
ing  the  invasion  of  foreign  powers;  weakening  our 
means  of  defence,  and  driving  us  to  form  European  al 
liances?  Whether  they  who  are  active  to  promote  union, 
to  support  government,  to  prepare  to  repel  hostility  ;  or 


96  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

those  who  busily  engender  divisions ;  revile  our  own  go 
vernment,  indiscriminately  censure,  and  (as  far  as  they 
dare)  oppose  all  its  acts,  and  endeavor  to  paralize  all  its 
efforts. 

The  nation,  previous  to  the  operation  of  the  fed 
eral  government,  was  in  a  prostrate  and  abject  state. 
Arts,  trade  and  commerce  languished.  Industry  had 
little  or  no  encouragement.  Tender  laws,  and  other 
measures,  impolitic  and  unjust,  had  banished  confi 
dence  between  man  and  man.  An  unfavorable  bal 
ance  of  trade  had  exhausted  the  country  of  its  metallic 
medium.  The  states  were  hostile  to  and  jealous  of  each 
other.  In  a  word,  the  prospects  of  the  nation,  for  want 
of  a  general  controlling  government,  had  been  so  ex 
tremely  gloomy,  that  good  men  began  to  doubt  whether 
in  its  consequences  the  revolution  would  deserve  to  be 
styled  a  blessing.  But  the  establishment  of  our  most  no 
ble  and  most  excellent  form  of  government  worked  a  ra 
pid  and  incredible  change.  Confidence  was  completely 
restored.  Arts,  trade  and  commerce  revived.  State  jea 
lously  was  disarmed  of  all  its  powers  to  retard  or  destroy 
public  prosperity.  And  would  it  not  now  be  an  attempt 
worse  than  political  suicide,  to  seek  a  dissolution  of 
this  happy  union,  or  to  endanger  the  destruction  of  the 
government  by  a  blind  and  indiscriminate  adherence  to 
party  prejudices.  Violent  partizans  have  in  all  ages  be 
lieved  the  monstrous  doctrine,  that  the  end  sanctifies  the 
means;,  a  doctrine,  the  fruitful  parent  of  numberless 
crimes.  This  frequently  leads  parties  to  adopt  measures 
at  which  each  individual  would  have  shuddered.  They 
should  use  their  utmost  energy  to  oppose  all  impolitic,  in 
jurious,  or  unjust  measures, — but  let  them  yield  a  cordial 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  97 

and  hearty  support  to  every  one  calculated  to  promote 
the  public  good.  This  is  what  would  constitute  a  noble 
and  dignified  political  party.  Let  them,  if  they  choose, 
if  they  be  out  of  power,  use  all  their  efforts  to  regain  the 
power  they  have  lost,  by  fair  and  honorable  means.  Let 
them  charitably  regard  their  political  adversaries  as  in* 
tending  to  promote  the  public  good,  even  when  they  be 
lieve  them  in  error.  Let  them  make  allowance  for  hu 
man  imperfection,  from  which  they  are  no  more  exempt 
than  their  antagonists. 

The  position  which  each  of  the  states  occupies  as  mem 
bers  of  this  union,  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  by  any  par 
ty.  For  whilst,  as  to  all  the  purposes  not  delegated  to  the 
general  government,  each  is  an  independent  sovereign 
ty,  yet,  as  to  all  granted  to  the  confederation  or  union, 
each  must  exercise  her  authorities  in  subordination  to 
the  general  government,  evincing  a  proper  regard  for, 
and  subordination  to  that  government  in  all  things  prop 
erly  pertaining  it.  The  government  of  the  states  should 
ever  exercise  a  careful  vigilance  for  the  preservation  of 
their  own  rights,  that  the  object  of  the  confederation 
may  be  fairly  effected,  and  the  harmony  of  a  system  of 
government  without  parallel  in  modern  times  be  preser 
ved  in  all  its  beauty  and  symetry.  "It  is  not  sufficient 
that  there  should  be  a  cold  compliance  in  terms  with 
the  letter  of  our  constitution;"  there  should  be  a  proper 
national  feeling  of  brotherhood  kept  up.  We  should 
exhibit  in  all  our  conduct  that  we  are  members  of  a  great 
and  powerful  union  of  free  states,  who  have  made  cer 
tain  terms  and  conditions  by  way  of  mutual  concession 
and  compromise  in  order  to  promote  the  general  good  of 
the  whole.  The  old  articles  of  confederation,  as  well 
9 


98  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

as  the  present  constitution  of  the  United  States,  were 
the  results  of  these  feelings  and  these  concessions  and 
compromises, — and  a  due  regard  to  that  good  faith  which 
ahould  ever  characterize  the  conduct  of  a  republican^ 
would  seem  to  require  that  a  contract  or  compact  of 
union  thus  formed,  should  be  kept  not  only  inviolate  in 
terms,  but  in  spirit  also. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  99 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

IN  our  last  chapter,  we  mentioned  that  Mr.  Macon 
was  never  what  might  be  called  a  thorough-going  party 
man.  We  attempted  to  give  our  ideas  of  what  consti 
tuted  that  character,  to  enable  the  reader  to  discover  the 
difference  between  him  and  those  politicians  who  so  fre 
quently  suffer  their  ambition  and  prejudices  to  lead  them 
to  such  extravagant,  unnecessary,  and  dangerous  results. 
In  the  whole  history  of  Mr.  Macon' s  political  career, 
he  never  has  been  charged  with  any  inconsistency,  or 
the  smallest  departure  from  the  true  republican  doctrine 
but  on  one  occasion.  He  was  charged  by  some,  since 
the  close  of  our  last  war  with  Great  Britian,  with  having1 
voted  for  the  war,  but  voted  against  appropriations  to 
carry  it  on.  This  is  the  only  political  inconsistency  we 
have  ever  heard  of  his  being  accused  ;  and  had  it  been 
true,  was  certainly  of  a  character  that  placed  him,  as  a 
politician,  in  a  very  ridiculous  point  of  view.  But  upon 
an  examination  of  the  journals  of  congress,  it  will  be 
found  an  accusation  without  any  foundation. 

Matthew  Carey  in  his  first  edition  of  the  Olive  Branch, 
enumerated,  among  the  errors  of  Mr.  Madison's  admin 
istration,  the  neglect  to  make  due  preparations  for  the 
war  "previous  to  the  commencement  of  hostilities."  But 
says,  in  his  second  edition,  that  he  deeply  regrets  to  have 
cast  such  a  superficial  glance  at  the  subject ;  to  have  al* 


100  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

lowed  himself  to  be  so  grossly  deceived,  and  to  have 
contributed  to  lead  his  readers  estray.  There  were  am 
ple  preparations  made,  he  afterwards  says,  as  might  be 
seen  in  a  list  of  acts  inserted  in  his  book,  passed  during 
the  session  of  congress,  towards  the  close  of  which  war 
was  declared.  He  further  says,  like  an  honest  man  (as 
we  believe  he  was)  that  he  should  not  easily  forgive 
himself  the  very  extraordinary  error  of  which  he  ac 
knowledges  himself  guilty  on  the  subject.  He  stated 
he  should  regard  it  as  a  monition  as  long  as  he  lived 
against  precipitate  decision.  And  took  the  liberty  of 
hinting  to  his  readers,  whoever  they  might  be,  that  they 
might  derive  a  useful  lesson  from  the  fact?  If,  with  the 
attention  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  paying  to  public 
affairs, — reading  two  or  three  news-papers  every  day, — 
and  perfectly  convinced  of  the  justice  of  war,  he  had 
nevertheless  fallen  into  such  a  palpable,  such  a  mon 
strous  error,  on  so  plain  a  point — if  he  had  brought  so 
unjust  an  accusation  against  the  congress  which  declared 
war,  how  difficult  must  it  be  for  persons  remote  from 
opportunities  of  judging  correctly,  and  liable  to  be  mis 
lead  by  interested  or  factious  men,  to  form  accurate 
opinions.  And  here  we  would  remark,  if  those  persons 
had  taken  the  trouble  to  have  examined,  who  accused 
Mr.  Macon  of  voting  against  appropriations  to  carry  on 
the  war,  they  probably  would  have  found  themselves 
in  Matthew  Carey's  predicament ;  and  we  are  in  hopes 
would  have  been  equally  penitent,  and  cautious  of  falling 
into  similar  errors  in  future,  as  they  discovered  how 
utterly  fallacious  and  unfounded  was  the  allegation. 

This  accusation  against  Mr.   Macon  originated,  from 
his  adherence  to  a  rule  which  he  had  prescribed   for 


LIFE  OF  NAT;HANXEI   MACON-.  JO  I 

himself, — "  that  of  voting  for  the  expenditure  of  no 
money  other  than  was  required  by  public  necessity." 
From  this  rule  he  was  never  known  to  depart ; — it  was 
the  epitome  of  all  his  political  principles — the  grand 
centre  point  from  which  all  the  rays  of  his  political  worth 
eminated — and  his  adherence  to  it,  he  looked  upon  as  a 
moral  engagement  he  was  always  under  to  his  constitu 
ents,  that  he  was  determined  to  fulfil  to  the  letter.  No 
lure  could  have  tempted  him  to  lay  it  down — there  was 
no  passion  he  would  gratify  at  the  expense  of  this  duty. 
He  always  sought  with  great  earnestness  and  untiring 
industry,  the  path  that  led  to  it ;  and  when  discovered, 
fearlessly  pursued  it — obliging  no  one  from  favour  or 
affection,  and  yielding  nothing  to  the  suggestions  of  re 
sentment  or  enmity.  This  tenacity  to  principle,  then, 
must  have  disqualified  him  from  filling  the  character  as 
we  have  before  stated  of  that  thorough-going  party-man 
to  whom  sometimes  may  be  attributed  so  many  evil  con 
sequences. 

It  appears  that  the  whole  of  Mr.  Macon's  votes  in 
congress  preparatory  to  and  during  the  progress  of  hos 
tilities  with  Great  Britian,  were  governed  (as  they  should 
have  been)  by  the  principles  of  defensive  war.  The 
principles  of  defensive  war  in  his  opinion  were  so  sim 
ple  as  to  procure  an  almost  infallible  success.  Fortifi 
cations,  therefore,  according  to  these  principles  are  con 
sidered,  a  very  equivocal  species  of  protection,  and  will 
oftener  be  of  advantage  to  the  enemy,  by  being  first 
taken,  and  then  converted  into  magazines  for  his  armies. 
Whilst  a  moving  force  on  the  contrary,  if  it  only  ho 
vered  about  his  march  and  avoided  general  action,  would 
always  preserve  the  real  superiority.  The  great  engine 
9* 


102  LIFE  ;OF  NATHANIEL  MACON* 

of  military  success  or  miscarriage,  is  the  article  of  pro 
visions  ;  and  the  farther  the  enemy  advanced  into  our 
countiy,  the  more  easy  would  it  be  to  cut  off  his  supply  ; 
at  the  same  time,  that  so  long  as  we  avoided  general  ac 
tion,  any  decisive  success  on  his  part  would  be  impossi 
ble.  These  principles,  if  rigidly  practised,  would  soon 
be  so  well  understood,  that  the  entering  in  a  hostile 
manner  the  country  of  a  neighbouring  nation  would 
come  to  be  regarded  as  the  infallible  destruction  of  the 
invading  army.  Perhaps  no  people  were  ever  conquer 
ed  at  their  own  doors,  unless  they  were  first  betrayed, 
either  by  divisions  among  themselves,  or  by  the  abject 
degeneracy  of  their  characters.  Not  less  inevitable, 
from  these  principles,  is  that  the  operations  of  vj^ar  should 
be  limited  as  accurately  as  possible  to  the  generating  no 
farther  evils  than  defence  inevitably  requires.  Calamity 
should  as  entirely  as  possible  be  prevented  to  every  in 
dividual  who  is  not  actually  in  arms,  and  whose  fate  has 
no  immediate  reference  to  the  event  of  the  war.  This 
principle  condemns  the  levying  military  contributions, 
and  the  capture  of  mercantile  vessels.  Each  of  these 
atrocities  would  be  in  another  way  precluded  by  the 
doctrine  of  simple  defence.  We  should  scarcely  think 
of  levying  such  contributions,  if  we  never  attempted  to- 
pass  the  limits  of  our  territory;  and  every  species  of 
naval  war  would  perhaps  be  proscribed. 

In  the  examination  of  Mr.  Macon's  votes  on  the  va 
rious  measures  preparatory  to  the  declaration  of  war  in 
1812,  it  appears  he  considered  a  navy  adequate  to  the 
protection  of  our  own  coast,  sufficient,  until  farther  exi 
gences  required  its  increase, — and  when  that  time  arrived, 
•we  might  be  better  prepared  to  make  appropriations  for 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  103 

that  purpose.  The  resolutions,  as  reported  by  the  com 
mittee  of  the  whole  house  on  the  state  of  the  union,  the 
6th  December  1811,  and  his  votes  thereon  clearly  up 
hold  this  inference.  There  were  six  of  these  resolutions 
which  we  feel  it  our  duty  to  lay  before  the  reader  at  full 
length  that  he  have  a  fair  opportunity  of  being  in  posses 
sion  of  all  the  facts  out  of  which  arose  the  accusation  of 
inconsistent  voting  against  the  subject  of  these  pages. 

1st. — Resolved,  that  the  military  establishment,  as  au 
thorised  by  existing  laws,  ought  to  be  immediately  com 
pleted,  by  filling  up  the  ranks,  and  prolonging  the  en 
listments  of  troops ;  and  that  to  encourage  the  enlist 
ments,  a  bounty  in  lands  ought  to  be  given,  in  addition 
to  the  pay  and  bounty  now  allowed  by  law. 

2nd. — Resolved,  that  an  additional  force  of  regular 
tro6*ps  ought  to  be  immediately  raised  to  serve  for  three 
years ;  and  that  a  bounty  in  lands  ought  to  be  given  to 
encourage  enlistments. 

3rd. — Resolved,  that  it  is  expedient  to  authorise  the 
president,  under  proper  regulations,  to  accept  the  service 
of  any  number  of  volunteers,  not  exceeding  fifty  thou 
sand,  to  be  organized,  trained  and  held  in  readiness  to 
act  on  such  service  as  the  exigences  of  the  government 
may  require. 

4th. — Resolved,  that  the  president  be  authorised  to 
order  out,  from  time  to  time,  such  detachments  of  the 
militia,  as,  in  his  opinion  the  public  service  may  require. 

5th. — Resolved,  that  all  the  vessels,  not  now  in  service, 
belonging  to  the  navy,  and  worthy  of  repair,  be  imme 
diately  fitted  up  and  put  in  commission. 

6th. — Resolved,  that  it  is  expedient  to  permit  our  mer 
chant  vessels,  owned  exclusively  by  resident  citizens,  and 


104  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

commanded  and  navigated  solely  by  citizens,  to  arm,  un 
der  proper  regulations  to  be  prescribed  by  law,  in  self- 
defence  against  all  unlawful  proceeding. 

Mr.  Macon  voted  for  the  four  first  of  these  resolutions 
and  against  the  two  latter, — carrying  out  his  opinion  as 
we  before  stated,  that  he  considered  the  navy  as  it  then 
stood  amply  sufficient  to  the  protection  of  our  coast  and 
for  defensive  war ;  and  until  further  exigencies  required 
it,  he  was  in  favor  of  its  remaining  as  it  was ;  looking 
upon  appropriations  for  its  increase  at  that  time  as  unneces 
sary  expenditures.  He  voted,  in  a  large  majority,  on  the 
20th  December,  1811,  on  the  bill  from  the  senate  "for 
completing  the  military  establishment."  He  voted  a- 
gainst  (in  minority  of  34, — 94)  raising  an  additional 
force ;  which  vote  was  no  doubt  given  by  Mr.  Macon, 
on  account  of  the  amendments,  to  the  bill  from  the  Sen 
ate  by  Mr.  Bibb  of  Georgia  and  John  Smilie,  the  pur 
port  of  which  amendments  were  to  make  the  president 
judge,  whether  the  appointment  of  any  officers  to  those 
regiments  were  necessary  or  not ;  and  if  any,  what  num 
ber  should  be  appointed. 

He  voted  against  the  bill  entitled  an  act  concerning 
the  naval  establishment,  29th  January  1812. 

He  voted  for  the  bill  supplementary  to  an  act  making 
provision  for  arming  and  equipping  the  whole  body  of 
the  militia  of  the  United  States. 

He  voted  for  the  embargo,  1st  of  April,  1812. 

This  is  the  history  of  Mr.  Macon' s  course  in  congress, 
preparatory  to  the  war.  We  will  next  examine  his  votes, 
from  its  declaration  to  its  close  on  the  24th  December^ 
when  peace  was  made  at  Ghent. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  105 

Mr.  Macon  voted  for  the  act  declaring  war  between 
Great  Britian  and  her  dependences  and  the  United  States, 
and  their  territories,  on  the  4th  of  June  1812,  and  was 
appointed  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Finley  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  as  a  committee  to  carry  the  bill  to  the  senate  to  re 
quest  their  concurrence.  And  to  show  his  manner  of 
informing  his  constituents,  after  it  was  sanctioned  by  the 
senate  on  the  17th,  he  wrote  to  the  different  post  mas 
ters  in  his  district,  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON,  18th  June,  1812. 
Dear  Sir : — 

War  was  declared  against  Great  Britain  yesterday. 
Yours,  &c. 

NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Mr.  Macon  voted  for  the  {(act  to  lay  and  collect  a  di 
rect  tax  within  the  United  States,"  8th  January,  1813,— 
and  no  people,  with  a  local  and  transitory  exception 
never  to  be  wholly  avoided,  were  more  able  than  the 
people  of  the  United  State  to  spare  for  the  public  wants 
a  portion  of  their  private  means  ;  whether  regard  had 
been  had  to  the  ordinary  profits  of  industry,  or  the  ordi 
nary  prices  of  subsistence  in  our  country  at  the  time, 
compared  with  those  of  any  other.  And  in  no  case 
could  stronger  reasons  be  felt  for  yielding  the  requisite 
contributions.  These  contributions  rendered  the  public 
resources  certain,  and  commensurate  to  the  public  emer 
gencies,  the  constituted  authorities  able  to  prosecute  the 
war  more  rapidly  to  its  proper  issue, — whilst  every  hos 
tile  hope  of  the  political  party  opposing  the  war,  founded 
on  a  calculated  failure  of  our  resources,  was  cut  off,  by 


106  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

adding  to  the  evidence  of  bravery  and  skill,  in  combats 
on  the  ocean  and  on  land,  an  alacrity  in  supplying  treas 
ure  necessary  to  give  them  their  fullest  effect ;  and  thus 
demonstrating  to  the  world,  the  public  energy  which  our 
political  institutions,  combined  with  personal  liberty,  dis 
tinguishes  them,  to  be  the  best  security  against  future 
enterprises  on  the  rights  or  the  peace  of  the  nation. 

Mr.  Macon  was  on  the  committee  for  public  expendi 
tures  the  26th  February,  1814— 5th  of  March,  1814, 
Mr.  Macon  voted  for  the  bill  from  the  senate,  "in  ad 
dition  to  an  act  entitled  an  act  allowing  a  bounty  to  the 
owners,  officers,  and  crews,  of  the  private  armed  vessels 
of  the  United  States."  On  the  same  day  voted  for  a 
bill  making  appropriations  for  the  support  of  the  navy  of 
United  States,  for  the  year  1814.  And  voted  on  the 
same  day  again,  for  a  bill  making  appropriations  for  the 
support  of  the  military  establishment  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  same  year. 

Here  we  have  a  plain  and  simple  history  of  all  the 
foundation  of  that  inconsistency  with  which  he  has  been 
so  unjustly  charged,  and  which  must  have  first  had  its  birth 
in  misrepresentations,  and  its  propogation  afterwards  sus 
tained  only  by  ignorance  and  misguided  prejudice.  And 
though  the  author  is  well  aware  that  its  perusal  will  be 
rather  tedious,  perhaps  insiped,  to  some  of  his  readers, 
yet  for  those  who  may  take  an  interest  in  political  sub 
jects— -he  felt  it  his  duty  as  his  biographer  not  to  over 
look  so  important  a  matter  in  so  great  a  man's  life.  In 
deed,  when  we  come  to  give  his  conduct  in  congress  at 
this  period,  a  full  investigation,  we  are  bound  to  come  to 
the  conclusion,  that  any  other  course  but  the  one  pur- 


LIF E  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  107 

sued,  would  have  been  a  departure  from  the  political 
principles  he  prescribed  for  himself, — and  his  strict  com 
pliance  with  which  on  all  occasons  as  well  as  the  one 
just  under  review,  procured  him  the  character  of  being 
one  of  the  standards  of  republicanism  in  the  nation,  and 
a  never-failing  criterion  of  the  true  democratic  faith  * 


108  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACOJT, 


CHAPTER  XV. 

WHEN  a  statue  had  been  erected  by  his  fellow  citizens 
of  Theses  to  Theagenes,  a  celebrated  victor  in  the  pub 
lic  games  of  Greece,  we  are  told,  that  it  excited  so 
strongly  the  envious  hatred  of  one  of  his  rivals,  that  he 
went  to  it  every  night,  and  endeavoured  to  throw  it  down 
by  repeated  blows ;  till  at  last,  unfortunately  successful,  he 
was  able  to  move  its  pedestal,  and  was  crushed  to  death 
beneath  it  on  its  fall.  This,  if  we  consider  the  self-con 
suming  misery  of  envy,  might  have  happened  to  those 
accusers  of  Mr.  Macon  of  the  political  inconsistency  of 
which  we  treated  in  our  last  chapter,  had  they  been 
successful. 

There  are  minds  of  which  the  chief  wishes  of  evil 
are  not  to  those  whom  it  is  virtuous  to  view  with  disap 
probation,  but  to  those  whom  it  is  vice  not  to  view  with 
emotions  of  esteem  and  veneration.  Eager  for  distinc 
tion  in  that  great  theatre  of  human  life,  in  the  wide  and 
tumultuous,  and  ever  varying  spectacles  of  which  they 
are  at  once  actors  and  spectators ;  and  when  the  distinc 
tion  for  which  they  hoped,  is  occupied  or  about  to  be 
occupied  by  another  of  greater  merit,  their  own  defect 
of  merit  seems  to  them  not  so  much  a  defect  in  them 
selves,  as  a  crime  in  him  who  had  previously  occupied 
the  seat  to  which  they  aspired.  The  feeling  of  their 
inferiority  is  thus  forced  upon  them,  and  they  who  have 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  109 

forced  it  upon  them  by  their  superior  merit,  they  look 
upon  as  having  done  them  an  injury  to  the  extent  of  the 
uneasiness  which  they  have  occasioned;  and  an  injury, 
perhaps,  they  do  not  feel  more,  as  it  has  affected  them  in 
the  estimation  of  others,  than  they  feel  it  in  the  mode 
in  which  it  has  affected  them  in  their  own  estimate  of 
themselves.  An  injury  is  then  done  to  them  in  their 
own  estimation;  and  the  feeling  which  heaven  has  plac 
ed  within  their  breasts,  as  necessary  for  repelling  inju 
ry,  arise  on  this  instant  feeling  of  evil  which  they  have 
been  made  to  suffer.  But  what  were  necessary  for  re 
pelling  intentional  injury,,  arise  where  no  injury  was  in 
tended.  And  though  the  minds  in  which  they  thus  arise 
must  be  minds  that  are  in  the  highest  degree  selfish,  and 
incapable  of  feeling  that  noble  love  of  what  is  noble, 
which  endears  to  the  virtuous,  the  excellence  that  trans 
cends  them.  There  still  are  minds,  and  many  minds  so 
selfish,  and  so  incapable  of  delighting  in  excellence  that 
is  not  their  own.  Upon  this  principle,  the  conduct  of 
the  Athenian  who  ostracised  the  just  man  of  his  country, 
may  be  accounted  for. 

Mr.  Macon  occupied  a  seat  in  the  hearts  of  his  coun* 
try-men,  surrounded  by  so  many  virtues,  that  entirely 
protected  him,  from  the  puny  attacks  of  such  minds  as 
we  have  just  described;  and  was  so  far  above  the  reach 
of  the  arrows  used  by  them  on  this  occasion,  that  they 
fell  harmless  at  the  feet  of  those  who  aimed  them.  There 
are  situations  in  life  in  which  it  is  necessary  to  submit 
even  to  the  dispraise  of  men  for  imputed  vices,  from 
which  we  know  that  we  are  free,  rather  than  by  the  sa 
crifice  of  our  duty,  to  appear  more  virtuous  by  being  less 
worthy  of  that  glorious  name.  This  was  Mr.  Macon's 
10 


110  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACOS". 

situation  at  this  period.  For  it  was  a  favourite  maxim 
with  him  in  our  republic,  "if  the  people  were  let  alone, 
they  would  always  do  right."  The  purport  of  which 
maxim  was,  that  upon  all  questions  coming  before  them 
where  they  were  not  interfered  with  by  the  intermed 
dling  demagogue,  a  majority  would  generally  decide  in 
favour  of  justice.  It  was  therefore  a  condescension  that 
his  conscious  rectitude  and  sterling  worth  would  not 
bend  to,  to  notice  such  imputations, — and  he  never  was 
known,  that  we  are  informed,  ever  to  have  made  the 
least  public  effort  to  acquit  himself  of  them,  notwith 
standing  they  inflicted  but  little  if  any  injury  upon  his 
popularity  at  tbe  time  of  their  propagation.  Mr.  Macon 
never  sought  office,  either  of  profit  or  honor.  His  popu 
larity  was  not  a  thing  that  he  had  to  chase  down  by  dint 
of  indefatigable  pursuit,  which  at  some  unwary  mo 
ment  was  to  elude  his  grasp  for  the  hands  of  another 
lucky  hunter.  But  it  was  a  popularity  that  was  founded 
upon  good  and  virtuous  conduct, — upon  principles,  to 
the  purity  of  which  the  bestowers  graciously  gave  it  as 
its  due.  His  tenure,  therefore,  to  the  donation,  was  of 
too  much  strength  to  be  broken  by  ordinary  human  ef 
forts. 

There  is  a  power  capable  of  being  coveted  by  minds 
which  are  incapable  of  feeling  and  appreciating  moral 
and  intellectual  excellence,  also,  which  he  never  sought 
or  wanted.  This  is  the  power  which  high  station  con 
fers.  The  power  of  forcing  obedience  even  upon  the 
reluctant,  and  in  many  cases  of  winning  obedience,  from 
that  blind  respect  which  the  multitude  are  always  suffi 
ciently  disposed  to  feel  for  the  follies,  as  for  the  virtues, 
of  those  above  them.  Much  of  the  pleasure  attached 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  Ill 

to  the  conception  of  this  power,  like  that  which  attends 
every  other  species  of  power,  arise,  it  must  be  admitted, 
from  the  glory  which  is  supposed  to  attend  official  digni 
ties; — but  the  desire  of  power  itself  would  be  one  of 
the  strongest  of  the  passions  of  men,  though  this  mere 
power  were  all  which  station  conferred.  To  know  that 
there  are  a  number  of  beings,  endowed  with  many  en 
ergies,  which  nature  seemed  to  have  made  absolutely 
independent  of  us,  who  are  constantly  ready  to  do  what 
ever  we  may  order  them  to  do,  in  obedience  to  our  very 
caprice,  is  to  us  very  nearly  the  same  thing,  as  if  some 
extension  of  our  faculties  had  been  given  to  us,  by  the 
addition  of  all  their  powers  to  our  physicial  constitution. 
If  these  instruments  of  power  were  mere  machines, 
which  subserviency  to  us  could  not  in  any  degree  de 
base,  and  which  could  be  kept  in  order  without  any 
great  anxiety  on  our  part,  and  without  occupying  that 
room  which  the  living  instruments  occupy,  we  should  all 
probably,  feel  the  desire  of  possessing  these  subsidiary 
faculties;  since  not  to  wish  for  them,  at  least,  would  be 
like  indifference  whether  we  had  two  arms  or  only  one, 
distinct  or  indistinct  vision,  a  good  or  bad  memory.  For 
none  of  us  are  like  that  marvellous  runner  in  the  fairy 
tale,  with  respect  to  any  of  our  faculties,  who  was  so 
very  nimble  as  to  be  obliged  to  tie  his  legs  that  he  might 
not  run  too  fast.  Our  powers,  bodily  or  mental,  never 
seem  to  us  to  require  any  such  voluntary  retardation ; 
and  however  well  fitted  they  may  be  for  the  circum 
stances  in  which  we  are  placed,  we  are  yet  desirous  of 
being  able  to  do  more  than,  as  individuals,  we  are  capa 
ble  of  doing;  and  would  gladly,  therefore,  avail  ourselves 
of  the  supplemental  machinery,  or  of  such  parts,  as  would 


112  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON, 

suit  best  our  particular  wishes  and  purposes.  But  the 
parts  of  the  machinery  of  power  of  which  we  are  speak 
ing,  are  living  beings  like  ourselves,  and  fond  as  we 
are,  of  the  purposes  which  we  may  be  desirous  of  exe 
cuting  by  means  of  them.  There  are  men  like  Mr.  Ma- 
con,  who  have  moral  affections  that  preclude  the  wish  ; 
and  it  was  on  this  account  he  constituted  (in  the  eyes 
of  all  those  who  were  capable  of  analysing  his  character) 
the  substantial  republican,  for  which  he  had  so  much 
credit.  He  did  not  covet  so  much  the  pride  of  him  who 
sees  a  whole  multitude  busy  only  in  furthering  his  frivo 
lous  and  ever-changing  desires,  as  the  serenity  of  him 
whom  the  world  counts  far  humbler;  who  sees  around 
him  a  multitude  happy  in  their  own  occupations,  feeling 
for  him  only  that  friendship  which  the  heart  spontane 
ous^  offers,  and  assisting  him  only  with  those  social  ser 
vices  which  it  is  delightful  to  give  ;  and  which  as  given 
with  delight,  it  is  delightful  also  to  receive.  He  felt 
within  himself  the  talents  which  were  to  render  his  ex 
altation  eminently  useful  to  mankind,  and  that  there 
might  be  more  virtue  and  more  happiness  in  the  world, 
than  if  he  had  not  been  elevated ;  therefore,  he  would 
have  been  guilty  of  criminal  self-indulgence,  if  he  had 
resigned  himself  to  the  enjoyments  of  private  life,  and 
neglected  the  honorable  means  of  rising  to  a  station 
which  his  virtues  and  talents  would  render  truly  honour 
able.  To  his  mind,  however,  ambition  presented  no 
anxieties ;  because,  though  there  might  not  be  the  hap 
piness  of  attaining  a  more  useful  station,  there  was  still 
the  happiness  of  being  useful  in  the  station  already  pos 
sessed  ;  and  it  presented  no  disgrace,  even  in  failure, 
because  the  disgrace  which  the  heart  feels,  is  only  for 


UFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  11 

those  who  have  failed  in  dishonourable  wishes,  or  who 
have  sought  what  is  honourable  in  itself,  by  the  use  of 
dishonourable  means. 

Of  the  multitude  of  the  ambitious,  how  few  are  there 
of  this  noble  class ; — how  infinitely  more  numerous  they 
who  seek  in  power  only  what  the  virtuous  man  does  not 
wish  so  much,  as  consent  to  bear  in  it  for  the  greater 
good  which  may  attend  it!  How  many,  who  labour,  per 
haps,  through  a  long  life  of  ignominy,  to  be  a  little  more 
guilty  than  it  js  possible  for  them  to  be  with  the  narrow 
means  of  guilt  which  they  possess,  and  wTho  die  at  last 
without  attaining  that  wretched  object  for  which  they 
have  crawled  and  prostrated  themselves,  and  been  every 
thing  which  a  good  man  would  not  be,  even  for  a  single 
moment,  for  all  which  kings,  or  the  favourites  of  kings, 
could  offer!  If  they  fail  in  their  ignoble  ambition,  it  is 
easy  to  see  what  misery  they  have  earned ;  and  if  even 
they  succeed  at  last,  what  is  it  which  they  gain  ?  There 
is  no  pleasure  in  what  they  possess,  while  it  is  inferior 
to  something  which  they  wish,  with  a  still  more  ardent 
appetite  to  acquire.  "  The  passion  which  torments  them 
is  like  a  flame  which  burns  with  more  violence  the  more 
fuel  there  may  have  previously  been  added  to  the  con 
flagration." 

The  happiness  enjoyed  by  one  who  has  risen  to  power 
by  ignoble  means,  is  perhaps  less  than  that  of  the  most 
abject  of  those  who  depend  on  him, — and  the  dignity 
which  he  has  attained,  and  knows  not  how  to  enjoy, 
however  splendid  it  may  be  as  a  mark  of  distinction,  a 
mark  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  the  unworthiness  of  him 
who  possesses  it;  a  memorial  of  crimes  or  follies,  which 
in  another  situation  would  have  been  unnoticed  t>r  for- 
10* 


114  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

gotten, — but  which  are  now  forced  on  the  continued 
execration  or  contempt  of  mankind ;  and  in  the  consci 
ousness  or  dread  of  this  general  feeling,  are  forced,  too, 
more  frequently  than  they  would  otherwise  have  arisen, 
on  the  shame  and  remorse  of  him  who  feels,  that  in 
purchasing  with  them  every  thing  else,  he  has  not  pur 
chased  with  them  happiness. 

In  the  great  scale  of  power,  which  ascends  from  the 
lowest  of  the  people  to  the  sovereign ;  to  whom  all  are 
submitted;  in  which  the  inferior,  at  every  stage,  is  pay 
ing  court  to  his  superior,  and  receiving  it  in  his  turn, 
from  those  who  are  inferior  to  himself,  it  is  not  easy  to 
say  at  what  point  of  the  scale  the  pleasure  of  the  ho 
mage  is  most  sincerely  felt.  There  is  much  truth  in  one 
of  Fielding's  lively  pictures  of  this  sort  of  homage,  in 
which  he  reduces  the  difference  of  power  to  the  diffe 
rent  hours  of  the  day,  at  which  we  are  great  men.  "With 
regard  to  time,  it  may  not  be  unpleasant,"  he  says,  to 
survey  the  picture  of  dependence  like  a  kind  of  ladder. 
As,  for  instance,  early  in  the  morning  arises  the  postillion, 
or  some  other  boy,  which  great  families,  no  more  than 
great  ships,  are  without,  and  falls  to  brushing  the  clothes, 
and  cleaning  the  shoes  of  John  the  footman,  who  being 
dressed  himself,  applies  his  hands  to  the  same  labours 
for  Mr.  second-hand,  the  squire's  gentleman — the  gen 
tlemen  in  the  like  manner,  a  little  later  in  the  day,  at 
tends  the  squire  ;  the  squire  is  no  sooner  equipt,  than  he 
attends  the  levee  of  my  lord;  which  is  no  sooner  over, 
than  my  lord  himself  is  seen  at  the  levee  of  the  favour 
ite,  who,  after  the  hour  of  homage  is  at  end,  appears 
himself  to  pay  homage  to  the  levee  of  the  sovereign. 
Nor  is  there,  perhaps,  in  this  whole  ladder  of  depend- 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  115 

ence,  any  one  step  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  other, 
than  the  first  from  the  second ;  so  that  to  a  philosophical 
mind,  the  question  might  only  seem  whether  you  would 
ehoose  to  be  a  great  man  at  six  in  the  morning^  or  at  two 
in  the  afternoon. 

That  there  is  more  true  happiness  in  the  enjoyments 
of  private  life,  than  in  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  is  one  of 
those  common  places  of  morality,  which  the  experience 
of  every  day  confirms.  Yet  the  poor  man's  son,  says 
Dr.  Smith,  whom  heaven,  in  its  anger,  has  visited  with 
ambition,  when  he  begins  to  look  around  him,  admires 
the  condition  of  the  rich.  He  finds  the  cottage  of  his 
father  too  small  for  his  accommodation,  and  fancies  he 
should  be  lodged  more  at  his  ease  in  a  palace.  He  is 
displeased  with  being  obliged  to  walk  a-foot,  or  to  endure 
the  fatigue  of  riding  on  horse-back.  He  sees  his  supe 
riors  carried  about  in  machines,  and  imagines  that  in  one 
of  these  he  could  travel  with  much  less  inconveniency. 
He  feels  himself  naturally  indolent,  and  willing  to  serve 
himself  with  his  own  hands  as  little  as  possible ;  and 
judges  that  a  numerous  retinue  of  servants  would  save 
him  from  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  He  thinks  if  he  had 
attained  all  these,  he  would  sit  still  contentedly,  and  be 
quiet,  enjoying  himself  in  the  thought  of  the  happiness 
and  tranquility  of  his  situation.  He  is  enchanted  with 
the  distant  idea  of  this  felicity.  It  appears,  in  his  fancy, 
like  the  life  of  some  superior  rank  of  beings;  and  in 
order  to  arrive  at  it,  he  devotes  himself  for  ever  to  the 
pursuit  of  wealth  and  greatness.  To  obtain  the  conve 
niences  which  these  afford,  he  submits,  in  the  first  year, 
nay,  in  the  first  month  of  his  application,  to  more  fatigue 
of  body,  and  more  uneasiness  of  mind,  than  he  could 


116  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

have  suffered  through  the  whole  of  his  life  from  the 
want  of  them.  He  studies  to  distinguish  himself  in 
some  laborious  profession.  With  the  most  unrelenting 
industry  he  labours  night  and  day,  to  acquire  talents 
superior  to  all  his  competitors.  He  endeavours  next  to 
bring  those  talents  into  public  view ;  and,  with  equal 
assiduity,  solicits  every  opportunity  of  employment.  For 
this  purpose,  he  makes  his  court  to  all  mankind ;  he  serves 
those  whom  he  hates,  and  is  obsequious  to  those  whom 
he  despises.  Through  the  whole  of  his  life,  he  pursues 
the  idea  of  a  certain  artificial  and  elegant  repose,  which 
he  may  never  arrive  at ;  for  which  he  sacrifices  a  real 
tranquility,  that  is  at  all  times  in  his  powyer,  and  which, 
if  in  the  extremity  of  old  age,  he  should  at  last  attain 
to  it,  he  will  find  to  be  in  no  respect  preferable  to  that 
humble  security  and  contentment  which  he  had  aban 
doned  for  it.  It  is  then,  in  the  last  dregs  of  life,  his  body 
wasted  with  toil  and  diseases,  his  mind  galled  and  ruffled 
by  the  memory  of  a  thousand  injuries  and  disappoint 
ments,  which  he  imagines  he  has  met  with  from  the  in 
justice  of  his  enemies,  or  from  the  perfidy  and  ingrati 
tude  of  his  friends,  that  he  begins  at  last  to  find,  that 
wealth  and  greatness  are  mere  trinkets  of  frivolous  utility, 
no  more  adapted  for  procuring  ease  of  body  or  tranquility 
of  mind,  than  the  tweeser-cases  of  the  lover  of  toys ; 
and  like  them  too,  more  troublesome  to  the  person  who 
carries  them  about  with  him,  than  all  the  advantages 
they  can  afford  him  are  commodious.  To  one  who  was 
to  live  alone  in  a  desolate  island,  it  might  be  a  matter  of 
doubt,  perhaps,  whither  a  palace,  or  a  collection  of  such 
small  conveniences  as  are  commonly  contained  in  a 
tweezer-case,  would  contribute  most  to  his  happiness  and 


LIFE    OP    NATHANIEL    MACON.  117 

enjoyment.  If  he  is  to  live  in  society,  indeed,  there 
can  be  no  comparison ;  because  in  this,  as  in  all  other 
cases,  we  constantly  pay  more  regard  to  the  sentiments 
of  the  spectator,  than  to  those  of  the  person  principally 
concerned;  and  consider  rather  how  his  situation  will 
appear  to  other  people,  than  how  it  will  appear  to  him 
self.  But  in  the  languor  of  disease,  and  weariness  of 
old  age,  the  pleasures  of  the  vain  and  empty  distinctions 
of  greatness  disappear.  To  one  in  this  situation,  they 
are  no  longer  capable  of  recommending  those  toilsome 
pursuits  in  which  they  had  formally  engaged  him.  In 
his  heart  he  curses  ambition,  and  vainly  regrets  the  ease 
and  the  indolence  of  youth,  pleasures  which  are  fled 
forever,  and  which  he  has  foolishly  sacrificed,  for  what, 
when  he  has  got  it,  can  afford  him  no  real  satisfaction. 
From  this  picture,  well  may  power  and  riches  appear  to 
such  minds  as  Mr.  Macon's,  to  be  what  they  really  are, 
enormous  and  operose  machines,  contrived  to  produce 
a  few  trifling  conveniences  to  the  body, — consisting  of 
springs  the  most  nice  and  delicate,  which  must  be  kept 
in  order  with  the  most  anxious  attention,  and  which,  in 
spite  of  all  our  care,  are  ready  every  moment  to  burst 
into  pieces,  and  crush  in  their  ruins  their  unfortunate 
possessor.  Immense  fabrics,  which  it  requires  the  labour 
of  a  life  to  raise,  which  threatens  every  moment  to  over 
whelm  the  person  that  dwells  in  them;  and  which,  while 
they  stand,  though  they  may  save  him  from  some  small 
er  inconveniencies,  can  protect  him  from  none  of  the 
severer  inclemencies  of  the  season.  They  keep  off  the 
summer  shower,  not  the  winter  storm,  but  leave  him 
always  as  much,  and  sometimes  more  exposed,  than  be- 


118  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

fore,  to  anxiety,  to  fear,  and  to  sorrow,  to  diseases,  to 
dangers,  and  to  death. 

It  has  been  as  truly,  as  eloquently  said,  that  "when 
providence  divided  the  earth  among  a  few  lordly  masters, 
it  neither  forgot  nor  abandoned,  those  who  seemed  to  be 
left  out  in  the  partition."  These  last  too,  enjoy  their 
share  of  all  that  it  produces.  In  what  constitutes  the 
real  happiness  of  human  life,  they  are  in  no  respect  in 
ferior  to  those,  who  would  seem  so  much  above  them. 
In  ease  of  body  and  peace  of  mind,  all  the  different 
ranks  of  life  are  nearly  upon  a  level ;  and  the  beggar, 
who  suns  himself  by  the  side  of  the  high- way,  possesses 
that  security  which  kings  are  fighting  for. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  119 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

IN  the  account  which  Swift  gives  of  his  Academy  of 
Projectors  in  Ladago,  he  mentions  one  project  for  ma 
king  things  supply  the  place  of  language,  and  he  speaks 
only  of  the  difficulty  of  carrying  about  all  the  things  ne 
cessary  for  discourse.  "There  was  a  scheme,"  he  says, 
"for  entirely  abolishing  all  words  whatsoever,"  and  this 
was  urged  as  a  great  advantage  in  point  of  health  as  well 
as  brevity. 

We  cannot  but  think,  that  to  a  genius  like  that  of  Dean 
Swift,  a  finer  subject  of  philosophical  ridicule,  than  the 
mere  difficulty  which  his  sages  felt  in  carrying  a  suffi 
cient  stock  of  things  about  with  them,  and  their  awk 
ward  attempts  to  make  these  things  supply  the  place  of 
abstract  language,  might  have  been  found  in  some  satir 
ical  demonstration  of  the  doctrine  of  a  certain  other  class 
of  great  men,  wrho  appear  to  have  thought  from  ages 
past,  that  the  greater  number  of  words  used  on  any  oc 
casion,  whether  in  the  senate  chamber  or  the  pulpit,  the 
nearer  approaches  they  were  making  to  the  enviable 
character  of  an  accomplished  orator.  Much  speaking  ap 
pears  to  be  the  reigning  vice  of  the  present  age,  and  the 
consequences  deducible  from  it,  as  of  old,  will  as  readily 
apply  to  many  of  those  who  are  guilty  of  it.  And  in 
the  great  field  for  political  irony,  for  example,  how  ma 
ny  subjects  of  satire  might  we  find  more  deserving  of 


120  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACOJf. 

the  shafts  of  our  ridicule,  on  this  account,  than  in  the 
emblems,  to  which  the  patriots  and  courtiers  of  this  Aca 
demy  of  Projectors,  in  their  most  zealous  professions  of 
public  devotion,  might  have  been  obliged  to  have  re 
course,  viz :  the  painful  awkwardness  of  the  political  ex 
pectant  of  places  and  dignities,  who  was  outwardly  to 
have  no  wish,  but  for  the  welfare  of  his  country,  yet 
could  find  nothing  but  mitres,  and  maces,  and  seals,  and 
pieces  of  stamped  metal,  with  which  to  express  the  pu 
rity  of  his  disinterested  patriotism;  and  the  hurrying 
eagerness  of  the  statesman,  likewise,  to  change  instantly 
the  whole  upholstery  of  language  in  his  house,  for  mere 
political  furniture,  in  consequence  of  the  mere  accident 
of  his  removal  from  office. 

The  highest  knowledge  can  be  nothing  more  than  the 
shortest  and  clearest  road  to  truth ;  all  the  rest  is  pre- 
tention,  not  performance;  mere  verbiage,  and  grandilo 
quence,  from  which  we  can  learn  nothing,  but  that  it  is 
the  external  sign  of  an  internal  deficiency.  Mr.  Macon, 
who  frequently  took  part  in  the  debates  of  congress,  was 
celebrated  for  his  faculty  of  conveying  many  ideas  in  a 
few  words.  He  was  not  of  that  order  of  orators,  who 
could  rouse  a  senate,  too  apt,  perhaps,  to  think  of  the 
privileges  of  a  few,  or  of  the  interest,  or  supposed  inter 
est,  of  one  people,  to  the  consideration  of  the  great  rights 
of  mankind  of  every  color  and  country, — forcing,  as  it 
were,  upon  their  eyes,  atrocities  which  they  had,  per 
haps,  at  a  distance,  long  sanctioned  or  permitted;  and  ab 
solving,  or  at  least  finishing,  by  the  virtuous  triumph  of  a 
single  hour,  the  guilt  of  many  centuries.  Orators  upon 
whom  it  appears,  the  happiness  and  misery,  virtue  and 
vice,  the  glory  and  infamy  of  nations  are  depending  on 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  121 

their  voice, — before  whom  every  heart  that  does  not 
gladly  yield  to  their  influence,  shrinks,  as  from  some 
thing  dreadful  and  irresistible ;  that  sweeps  away  all  sub 
terfuges  of  hypocricy,  and  leaves  nothing  behind  but 
conviction  and  joy  and  dismay.  But  he  was  the  patriot 
and  the  philosopher,  with  a  clear  head  and  distinct  voice, 
whom  the  corrupt  might  well  tremble  to  see  arise, — and 
whom  though  he  "possessed  neither  wit,  nor  words,  nor 
speech,  to  steal  men's  hearts,"  was  a  plain,  blunt  man, 
that  spoke  right  on,  and  told  them  things  that  they  them 
selves  did  know."  And  whenever  employed  in  speak 
ing  upon  the  freedom,  and  peace,  and  prosperity  of  his 
own  land,  alluded  also  to  the  happiness  which  the  land 
that  was  dearest  to  him,  could  diffuse  to  every  nation  that 
was  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence  or  example.  His 
laconic  manner  of  doing  this,  being  an  evidence  to  the 
world,  that  truth  always  lies  in  a  small  compass ;  and  if 
a  well  has  been  assigned  her,  for  a  habitation,  it  is  as  ap 
propriate  from  its  narrowness,  as  its  depth. 

No  sciences  have  exercised  so  many  quills,  as  those 
that  have  no  certainty ;  hence  it  happens  that  those  that 
are  capable  of  being  demonstrated,  are  never  voluminous; 
for  clearness  is  intimately  connected  with  conciseness, 
as  the  lightning  which  is  the  brightest  thing,  is  also  the 
most  brief;  but  in  proportion  as  certainty  vanishes,  ver 
bosity  abounds.  To  foretell  an  eclypse,  a  man  must  un 
derstand  astronomy ;  or  to  find  out  an  unknown  quantity 
by  a  known,  he  must  have  a  knowledge  of  calculation; 
and  yet  the  rudiments  that  enable  us  to  effect  these  im 
portant  things  are  to  be  found  in  a  very  narrow  compass. 
But  when  wre  survey  the  ponderous  folios  of  the  school 
men  and  the  metaphysicians,  we  are  inclined  to  ask  a 
11 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

very  simple  question.  What  have  either  of  these  plod 
ders  done,  that  has  not  been  better  done  by  those  that 
were  neither?  A  similar  reasoning  may  be  drawn  in  re 
flecting  upon  the  difference  of  the  public  speakers  of  the 
United  States;  and  as  it  may  be  gratifying  to  the  curios 
ity  of  some  of  our  readers,  we  will  here  subjoin  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  acknowledgement  to  the  house  of  representatives 
on  the  appointment  of  speaker  of  that  body  being  an 
nounced  to  him,  the  third  time  he  was  elected.  We  do 
this  the  more  readily  on  account  of  comparing  its  short, 
comprehensive  and  philosophical  sufficiency,  to  the  ver 
bose  and  pedantic  fulsomness  of  some  other  great  men 
of  the  nation  on  similar  occasions. 

We  have  before  stated  in  a  preceding  chapter,  that 
Mr.  Macon  was  elected  speaker  of  the  house  of  repre 
sentatives  in  the  year  1801,  in  the  first  session  of  the  se 
venth  congress,  held  under  the  constitution  of  the  go 
vernment  of  the  United  States — he  was  elected  speaker 
also  in  1803,  first  session  of  the  eighth  congress  ;  and 
likewise  in  1805,  first  session  of  the  ninth  congress,  un 
der  the  administration  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  was  on 
this  last  occasion  he  made  the  acknowledgments,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  copy  : 

"Gentlemen: 

Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  honor  you  have  con 
ferred  on  me.  Permit  me  to  assure  you  that  my  utmost 
endeavors  will  be  exerted  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
chair  with  fidelity,  impartiality  and  industry;  and  that  I 
shall  rely  with  confidence  on  the  liberal  and  candid  sup 
port  of  the  house." 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  123 

We  have  selected  his  third  address  on  account  of  its 
being  somewhat  longer  than  the  other  two,  made  to  the 
house  in  1801,  and  1803. 

The  following  is  an  acknowledgment  made  by  a  gen 
tleman  several  years  afterwards,  on  his  appointment  to 
the  same  office,  which  I  here  introduce  for  the  purpose 
of  the  contrast  above  mentioned : 

"Gentlemen: 

In  returning  to  the  station  in  which  am  replaced  by  a 
continuance  of  your  favor,  whilst  I  am  sensible  of  the 
honor  which  I  have  received,  I  am  sensible  also  of  my 
inability  to  fulfil  the  expectations  justly  raised  by  so 
elevated  a  distinction ;  but  gentlemen,  the  experience  I 
have  had,  limited  as  it  is,  has  satisfied  me  that  in  the 
malntainance  of  the  order  of  the  house,  less  depends 
upon  the  presiding  officer  than  upon  a  sense  of  the  ne 
cessity  of  decorum  being  generally  diffused  throughout 
the  body.  Then  only  will  a  deliberative  assembly  be 
well  governed,  and  its  business  agreeably  transacted  ; 
when  each  member,  identifying  the  reputation  of  the 
body  to  which  he  belongs  in  his  own,  shall  make  the  pre 
servation  of  its  order  an  affair  of  personal  and  individual 
concern,  and  shall  render  to  the  chair  a  candid,  liberal 
and  unbiased  support.  Under  the  hope  and  persuasion 
that  you  participate  with  me  in  these  sentiments,  I  shall 
proceed  to  administer  the  duties  you  have  been  pleased 
to  assign  me," 

This  address,  made  by  one  of  the  most  celebrated  men 
for  talents  in  the  nation,  has  been  here  presented  to  the 
reader,  to  show  that  Mr.  Macon,  on  precisely  a  similar 
occasion,  made  his  acknowledgments  to  the  house  in  an 


124  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

hundred  and  thirty- five  words  less,  employing  only  fifty- 
two  words,  (whilst  the  other  used  one  hundred  and  eighty  - 
seven)  equally  intelligible  and  expressive,  and  conveying 
the  same  number  of  ideas. 

Now,  suppose  the  calculation  was  to  be  made  of  the 
difference  in  the  cost  to  a  nation,  both  of  time  and  mo 
ney, — when  A,  a  statesman  would  consume  four  whole 
days  in  giving  his  sentiments  upon  the  various  subjects 
that  might  come  before  a  legislative  body  during  a  ses 
sion  ;  and  B,  a  statesman  consuming  only  one-fourth  of 
that  time  for  the  same  purpose,  and  furnishing  as  much 
information  and  argument  upon  the  same  subjects.  The 
advantages  to  the  nation  in  favour  of  the  latter  statesman, 
would  almost  be  incredible. 

Many  public  speakers  are  in  the  constant  habit  of  say 
ing  too  much,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  subject  or  oc 
casion  upon  which  they  speak.  But  it  is  a  truth  worthy 
of  notice  and  imitation,  that  Franklin,  Washington,  and 
a  number  of  other  truly  great  men,  were  remarkably  la 
conic  in  their  public  speeches,  keeping  close  to  the  ques 
tion  under  debate.  They  sought  to  inform,  not  to  dazzle- 
their  audience.  They  were  more  anxious  to  despatch 
the  business  of  their  constituents  than  to  outshine  each 
other  in  the  galaxy  of  eloquence.  If  all  our  public 
speakers  would  follow  in  the  same  path,  they  would  se 
cure  the  same  they  so  much  desire,  much  sooner,  and 
the  people's  business  would  be  more  promptly  and  better 
done,  and  at  much  less  expense,  than  it  has  been  for 
years  past.  The  legislator  or  the  advocate,  who  without 
circumlocution  or  parade,  comes  to  the  subject  matter  at 
once ;  who  seizes  upon  the  strong  points  of  argument, 
presents  them  clearly,  impartially  and  honestly ; 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  125 

who  says  all  that  is  proper  to  say,  and  nothing  more ; 
whose  sentences  are  charged  with  the  arrows  of  convic 
tion,  calculated  to  reach  the  heart  and  inform  the  mind ; 
and  who  leaves  off  when  he  has  just  said  enough,  will 
exercise  an  influence,  and  be  listened  to  with  an  atten 
tion  unknown  to  those  whose  whole  aim  and  ambition 
appears  to  be  to  show  their  talents  by  flights  of  oratory, 
plucking  flowers  from  the  regions  of  fancy,  instead  of 
gathering  the  more  substantial  fruits  of  sound  logic  and 
common  sense. 

But  notwithstanding  all  this,  it  is  one  of  the  fashion 
able  errors  of  the  present  age,  in  forming  our  opinions  of 
the  abilities  of  public  men,  to  fix  upon  those  who  make 
the  most  noise  in  our  public  councils, — and  this  error 
has  grown  to  such  a  pitch  that  unless  some  pains  are 
taken  to  correct  the  public  mind  upon  this  subject,  there 
is  no  knowing  where  it  will  end, — the  number  of  their 
words  being  the  standard  by  which  we  measure  their 
talents  and  usefulness. 

It  is  well  known  to  those  who  have  any  acquaintance 
with  the  philosophy  of  mind,  that  in  the  minds  of  some 
persons,  thoughts  and  circumstances  crowd  upon  each 
other  by  the  slightest  connexions, — which  is  ascribed  to 
the  bluntness  in  the  discerning  faculty ;  for  a  person  who 
cannot  accurately  distinguish  between  a  slight  connexion 
and  one  that  is  more  intimate,  is  equally  affected  by 
each  ; — such  a  person  must  necessarily  have  a  great  flow 
of  ideas,  because  they  are  introduced  by  any  relation  in 
differently  ;  and  the  slighter  relations  without  number, 
furnish  ideas  without  end.  The  most  ignorant  of  the 
vulgar,  in  describing  a  single  event,  pour  out  a  number 
of  suggestions  of  contiguity,  which  may  astonish  us  in- 
11* 


126  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

deed,  though  they  are  proofs  not  that  they  remember 
more,  but  only  that  their  prevailing  suggestions  take  place 
according  to  one  almost  exclusive  relation.  It  is  impos 
sible  to  listen  to  a  narrative  of  the  most  simple  event,  by 
one  of  them,  who  are  accustomed  to  pay  much  attention 
to  events,  but  as  they  occur  together,  without  being 
struck  with  a  readiness  of  suggestion  of  memory,  if  we 
did  not  take  into  account  the  comparatively  small  num 
ber  of  their  suggestions  of  a  different  class.  They  do 
not  truly  remember  more  than  others,  but  their  memory 
is  different  in  quality  from  the  memory  of  others.  Sug 
gestions  arise  in  their  minds,  which  do  not  arise  in  other 
minds ; — but  there  is  at  least  an  equal  number  of  sugges 
tions  that  arise  in  the  minds  of  others,  of  which  their 
minds  in  the  same  circumstances  would  be  wholly  un 
susceptible.  Yet  still,  as  to  common  observers,  their 
memory  will  appear  quick  and  retentive  in  a  peculiar 
and  far  surpassing  degree.  A  man  of  accurate  judg 
ment  therefore,  cannot  have  a  great  flow  of  ideas,  be 
cause  the  slighter  relation  making  no  figure  in  his  mind, 
have  no  power  to  introduce  ideas.  And  hence  it  is  that 
accurate  judgment  is  not  friendly  to  declamation  or  co 
pious  eloquence. 

It  is  not  from  a  defect  of  memory,  that  fewer  of  the 
ideas  which  prevail  in  common  conversation  arise  to  a 
mind  of  accurate  judgment,  but  because  the  prevailing 
tendency  to  suggestion  in  such  a  mind,  are  of  a  species 
that  have  little  relation  to  the  dates,  &c.,  of  the  occur 
rences  that  are  the  ordinary  topics  of  familiar  discourse. 
The  memory  differs  in  quality  not  in  quantity,  or  at  least 
the  defect  of  those  ordinary  topics  is  not  itself  a  proof 
that  the  general  power  of  suggestion  is  less  vigorous.  la 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  127 

the  case  of  extemporary  eloquence  indeed,  the  flow  of 
more  words  may  be  more  copious  in  him  who  is  not  ac 
customed  to  dwell  on  the  permanent  relations  of  objects, 
but  on  the  slighter  circumstances  of  perception  and  local 
connexion.  Yet  this  is  far  from  proving  that  the  memo 
ry  of  such  a  person,  which  implies  much  more  than  the 
recurrence  of  verbal  signs,  is  less  comprehensive.  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose,  that  un 
less,  probably,  in  a  few  very  extraordinary  cases,  which 
are  as  little  to  be  taken  into  account,  in  a  general  esti 
mate  of  this  kind,  as  the  form  and  functions  of  monsters 
in  a  physological  enquiry.  The  whole  series  of  sugges 
tions,  of  which  a  profound  and  discriminating  mind  is 
capable,  is  greater,  upon  the  whole,  than  the  number  of 
those,  which  rise  so  readily  to  the  mind  of  a  superficial 
thinker.  The  great  difference  is,  that  the  wealth  of  the 
one  is  composed  merely  of  those  smaller  pieces,  which 
are  in  continual  request,  and  therefore  brought  more  fre 
quently  to  view.  While  the  abundance  of  such  minds 
as  Benjamin  Franklin,  George  Washington  and  Nathan 
iel  Macon,  consist  chiefly  in  those  more  precious  coins, 
which  are  rather  deposited  than  carried  about  for  current 
use,  but  which  when  brought  forward,  exhibit  a  magni 
ficence  of  wealth  to  which  the  petty  counters  of  the  mul 
titude  are  comparatively  insignificant. 

Perhaps  in  this  attempt  of  convincing  the  reader  that 
Mr.  Macon  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents,  and  that 
he  displayed  as  much  wisdom  in  his  short,  comprehen 
sive  speeches  on  all  occasions,  as  he  did  in  the  display 
of  his  judgment  in  all  other  things  when  it  was  exercis 
ed,  we  may  succeed  better  by  giving  the  opinion  of 
others,  than  ourselves. 


128  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

The  honorable  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  in  an  address 
delivered  by  him,  before  the  two  literary  societies  of  Ran 
dolph,  Macon  College,  June  19,  183S,  in  speaking  of  Mr. 
Macon,  he  says  :  "  Of  Nathaniel  Macon,  I  cannot  well 
speak  too  highly.  There  was  a  beautiful  consistency  in 
his  course,  from  the  moment  of  his  entering  public  life,  to 
the  moment  of  his  quitting  it.  Nothing  sordid  ever  en 
tered  into  his  imagination.  He  was  the  devoted  patriot, 
whose  whole  heart  and  every  corner  of  it,  was  filled  with 
love  of  country.  He  was  a  moralist,  who  set  forth  his 
precepts,  not  in  ponderous  volumes,  but  in  daily  actions. 
Not  remarkable  for  the  brilliancy  of  his  intellect,  he  was 
most  distinguished  by  the  solidity  of  his  judgment.  Call 
ed  by  the  state  of  North  Carolina  to  a  high  political  sta 
tion,  he  presented  in  his  person  and  conduct  a  true  type 
of  the  state  and  people  he  represented ;  nothing  gaudy ; 
nothing  glaring ;  no  fret-work  or  curiously  wrought  mo 
saic  ;  but  all  about  the  building  betokened  strength  and 
enduring  strength.  He  united  in  his  person  the  meek 
ness  and  humility  of  the  Christian,  with  the  calm  and  un 
pretending  dignity  of  the  philosopher.  In  the  house  of 
representatives  he  was  the  firm  and  unflinching  republi 
can;  and  in  the  senate  chamber,  the  venerable  patriarch  ; 
cotemporary,  in  fact,  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  and 
most  worthy  to  have  lived  in  the  same  century  with  them. 
He  had  no  regard  for  those  forms  and  ceremonies  which 
constitute  the  pageantry  of  what  is  called  high  life.  They 
appeared  to  him  an  unreal  mockery,  a  mere  show  of 
friendship,  the  shadow  of  social  intercourse.  And  the 
plain  republican  who  had  been  reared  amid  the  realities 
of  the  revolution,  dispised  them  heartily.  And  yet  I 
doubt  whether  there  ever  lived  a  man  who  possessed  or 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL  -MACON". 

practised  more  of  the  genuine  hospitalities  of  life,  or 
whose  heart  was  more  entirely  filled  with  the  Christian 
charities  or  the  Christian  virtues."  Mr.  Tyler  said  in  the 
same  address,  "that  if  the  minds  of  John  Randolph,  of 
Roanoke,  and  Nathaniel  Macon  had  been  properly  blend 
ed  together,  they  would  have  almost  been  a  model  of  ab 
solute  perfection  ;  wit,  genius  and  fancy  would  have  been 
placed  in  close  connexion  with  a  judgment  so  inflexible 
and  so  erect  as  rarely  ever  to  have  been  shaken.  The  first 
adorns  and  beautifies,  the  last  shelters  from  the  storm  and 
protects  from  the  blast.  The  first  spreads  over  the  earth 
a  carpet  enamelled  with  the  brightest  and  sweetest  flow 
ers, — people  seach  star,  and  fills  earth  and  heaven  with 
harmonious  and  dulcet  sounds.  The  last  sees  in  each 
floweret,  and  every  blade  of  grass,  as  well  as  in  the  glo 
rious  heavens,  evidences  of  a  power  unseen,  infinite  in 
wisdom,  and  boundless  in  benevolence.  The  one  creates, 
the  other  preserves.  The  one  embellishes  and  adorns 
the  judgment  seat  with  the  gayest  and  brightest  garlands, 
the  other  holds  the  scales  with  an  untrembling  hand,  and 
weighs  out  the  decrees  of  good  and  evil  to  mankind. 
The  one,  if  I  may  so  speak,  is  the  capital  to  the  pillar, 
the  other  the  pillar  itself,  which  upholds  the  edifice." 

,  Mr.  Macon  was  always  a  great  favourite  of  the  cele 
brated  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  and  though  they 
differed  in  politics,  yet  their  intercourse  all  their  lives 
were  of  the  most  intimate  and  friendly  character.  They 
resided  about  sixty  miles  apart,  but  frequently  visited 
each  other,  and  when  in  company  with  each  other  ap 
peared  to  manifest  all  the  feelings  of  the  nearest  rela 
tions.  An  anecdote  concerning  them  whilst  in  congress 
in  1812,  suffice  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  in- 


Or  XATHAJflEL    MAC  r^. 


." ;   .  -  - :    _  _  i : ; .    :  •  r :  n  f   ".rr      i  r  n  *  r  T 
^r  111  !•!•  nf  im^\mt,  MI!  tonds  its  dose  of  HH 
Mr.  RjackMi  becaaw  naive*  u  aa  *-&***»*  ixmfxo- 


•f  May,  CM  of  Mr. 

-  :  i-  :ij    -..;  T  _:::.:":-.    :.    :L : .    :    :.--:  r  ' :  i   if  • 

:._:._   i  ::   -  LJ       7ii  •:-,:.-  rfiL-:  in:  ::  - 


Ti  .  .i-_r-:r^-  ..- 
: ;.::.  — i:  ::JT  .1  :  •  :  .ii-r  ':  r  iii:  ~  :::  ir  m  i:-  : 
r.ci^r  -Jii:  if  n:  i  -:::::  ~iki  ::.T~T- :*:  i  ?T-TT:- 
•paa  the  idbji  Li  rf  •»  irfa^M  wfth  Great  Britom  aad 
Jaehai  •Bt|iiirn  ill  il  fa;  bciiie  he  wai  olkd 

--•II    .  r  r   Z~  -  -  —  1    "..1 1 1  II  T  J  r    ••  1 :    I"    _  1 1 .  I  "I    I  r  I  I  T-: 

":,i.-:   :--  —  :-:  LT.r  ::  ,i-:i    -  V;. 


•     L:-.-  :-V.:rr   :—.=:,:;.      V-    ?.,:.- 


::;--,:  :i  :n:  'IT  .  ^r..ir.  i:  --.: 
::.-  LI:  -  ^L:  :--:-.-  -;--  ;j 
litj  to  ic^j.  A 

~:.^  ::^^^:   :ITL  :r- 

i.:-  i--  :.- 
a  be  ia  tended  to  make.    Tbe 

-:-ii->    :, 


Mr. 
k,  tiiat  il  if  mot  espedica^  at  ttii  fi»ef 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  131 

to  resort  to  a  war  with  Great  Britain."  And  after  much 
''courteous-retort  and  counter-check  quarrelsome,"  be 
tween  Mr.  Randolph  and  the  Speaker,  all  to  Mr.  Ran 
dolph's  prejudice,  Mr.  Randolph  said,  then  I  am  com 
pelled  to  submit  my  motion  in  writing ;  and  under  that 
compulsion  I  offer  it.  Another  controversy  ensued  be 
tween  them  with  much  stormy  debate,  and  Mr.  Randolph 
could  only  be  influenced  to  withdraw  his  appeal,  merely 
at  the  suggestion  of  his  friend  Mr.  Macon.  This  shews 
the  high,  respectable,  and  influential  standing  of  this 
venerable  man,  with  the  political  Ajax  of  the  house  of 
representatives,  as  he  has  been  called  by  some,  who  was 
certainly  superior  to  all  law  or  argument,  courtesy  or 
rule,  when  heated  in  debate.  But  even  in  the  height  of 
his  fury,  a  suggestion  from  Mr.  Macon  had  more  weight 
in  calming  him  down  to  reason,  than  all  these  considera 
tions.  Mr.  Randolph  has  been  frequently  heard  to  ob 
serve,  "that  if  wisdom  consisted  in  properly  exercising 
our  judgment  upon  the  value  of  things  desirable,  Mr. 
Macon  was  certainly  the  wisest  man  he  ever  saw." 

And  here  permit  us  to  remark,  in  the  conclusion  of 
this  chapter,  that  the  friendly  and  respectful  feelings  felt 
and  extended  towards  each  other,  by  these  two  great 
men,  is  one  of  the  strongest  evidences  that  can  be  ad 
duced  ;  that  a  difference  of  opinion  may  be  entertained 
between  friends  without  hostility.  They  knew  that  the 
mind  was  not  so  constituted  as  to  ensure  unanimity  of 
opinion  upon  any  subject;  and  that  it  was  no  more  to 
be  expected  that  men  should  think  alike,  than  that  they 
should  look  or  act  alike.  While  therefore,  each  was 
tenacious  of  his  own  entire  freedom  of  thought  and 
opinion,  they  permitted  that  freedom  to  be  enjoyed  by 


132  LIFE    OP   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

each  other,  with  all  the  charitableness  towards  one  anoth 
er,  which  a  sense  of  justice,  and  an  enlightened  tolera 
tion,  would  seem  to  require. 

This  spirit  of  charitableness  and  courtesy,  it  appears 
to  us,  is  in  no  wise  incompatible  with  the  most  ardent 
attachment  to  one's  principles  and  party.  Uniting  then, 
with  such  feelings,  though  on  many  points  with  antago 
nist  principles,  may  we  not  oftener  find  a  common  ground 
upon  which  we  can  cheerfully  and  successfully  co-ope 
rate  in  the  promotion  of  public  good. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  133 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

BEING  apprehensive  that  we  may  weary  some  of  our 
readers  with  too  many  of  Mr.  Macon's  speeches,  before 
we  get  through  the  whole  of  his  public  life,  we  have 
thought  to  omit  saying  any  thing  more  concerning  him 
whilst  he  was  a  member  of  the  house  of  representatives ; 
and  in  the  few  examples  which  we  shall  give  during 
his  services  in  the  senate,  have  selected  the  first  that 
came  to  hand  in  the  register  of  debates,  of  the  second 
session  of  the  eighteenth  congress. 

On  the  21st  December,  1824,  a  bill  for  making  pro 
vision  for  general  Lafayette,  (by  way  of  gratitude  to 
him,  for  his  assistance  in  our  revolution,  who  was  then 
the  nation's  guest,)  was  taken  up: — and  no  amendment 
being  opposed  thereto,  the  question  was  about  to  be  put 
on  ordering  the  bill  to  be  read  the  third  time,  Avhen  Mr. 
Macon  rose  and  said  : 

"It  was  with  painful  reluctance,"  he  said,  "that  he  felt 
himself  obliged  to  oppose  his  voice  to  the  passage  of 
this  bill.  He  admitted,  to  the  full  extent  claimed  for 
them,  the  great  and  meritorious  services  of  general  La 
fayette  ;  and  he  did  not  object  to  the  precise  sum  which 
this  bill  proposed  to  award  him;  but  he  objected  to  the 
bill  on  this  ground:  he  considered  general  Lafayette,  to 
all  intents  and  purposes,  as  having  been,  during  our  re 
volution,  a  son,  adopted  into  the  family;  taken  into  the 


134  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

household,  and  placed  in  every  respect,  on  the  same  foot 
ing  with  the  other  sons  of  "the  same  family.  To  treat 
him  as  others  were  treated,  was  all  in  this  view  of  his 
relation  to  us,  that  could  be  required,  and  this  had  been 
done.  That  general  Lafayette  made  great  sacrifices  and 
spent  much  of  his  money  in  the  service  of  this  country, 
(said  Mr.  Macon)  I  as  firmly  believe  as  I  do  any  thing 
under  the  sun ;  I  have  no  doubt  that  every  faculty  of 
his  mind  and  body  were  exerted  in  the  revolutionary 
war,  in  defence  of  this  country;  but  this  was  equally 
the  case  with  all  the  sons  of  the  family.  Many  native 
Americans  spent  their  all,  made  great  sacrifices,  and  de 
voted  their  lives  in  the  same  cause.  This  was  the  ground 
of  his  objection  to  this  bill,  which  he  repeated,  it  was 
as  disagreeable  to  him  to  state,  as  it  could  be  to  the  sen 
ate  to  hear.  He  did  not  mean  to  take  up  the  time  of 
the  senate  in  debate  upon  the  principle  of  the  bill,  or  to 
move  any  amendment  to  it.  He  admitted  that,  when 
such  things  were  done,  they  should  be  done  with  a  free 
hand.  It  was  to  the  principle  of  the  bill,  therefore,  and 
not  to  the  sum  proposed  to  be  given  by  it,  that  he  objec 
ted.  With  regard  to  the  details  of  the  bill,  however,  he 
was  rather  of  the  opinion  that  it  would  have  been  better 
to  have  given  so  much  money,  which  we  have  in  the 
treasury,  than  to  have  given  stock  to  the  amount." 

The  passage  of  the  bill  was  defended  very  eloquently 
by  several  orators.  Stating  that  by  inviting  and  bringing 
Lafayette  to  the  United  States,  we  placed  him  in  a  new 
and  extraordinary  situation  in  society.  We  had  con 
nected  him  with  our  history.  We  had  made  him  a 
spectacle  for  the  world  to  gaze  on.  He  could  not  go 
back  to  France  and  become  the  private  citizen  he  was 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  135 

when  he  left  it.  We  had,  by  the  universal  homage  of 
our  hearts  and  tongues,  made  his  house  a  shrine,  to  which 
every  pilgrim  of  liberty,  from  every  quarter  of  the  world, 
would  repair.  They  asked  at  least,  let  him  not,  after  this, 
want  the  means  of  giving  welcome  to  the  Americans, 
who  whenever  they  visit  the  shores  of  France,  would 
repair  in  crowds  to  his  hospitable  mansion  to  testify  their 
veneration  to  the  illustrious  compatriot  of  their  fathers. 
They  said  Lafayette  would  be  a  connecting  link  between 
the  old  world  and  the  new.  By  our  voluntary  act,  we  had 
placed  him  in  this  extraordinary  situation ;  and  if,  after 
all  that  has  been  done  and  said,  we  permitted  him  to 
return  home,  without  passing  the  bill  which  was  then  on 
the  table,  we  must  suffer  a  loss  of  reputation  at  home 
and  abroad  which  time  could  not  repair.  It  was  said, 
that  national  character  was  national  wealth;  it  gave  a 
tone  to  the  public  sentiment  and  feeling,  which  added 
strength  and  energy  to  the  country.  It  was  said,  what 
would  be  thought  of  us  in  Europe,  if  after  all  that  had 
passed,  we  should  fail  to  make  a  generous  and  liberal 
provision  for  our  venerable  guest?  It  was  repeated, 
that,  we  had  under  circumstances  calculated  to  give  to 
the  event  great  eclat,  invited  him  to  our  shores.  We 
had  received  him  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm.  The 
people  had  every  where  greeted  him  in  the  warmest 
terms  of  gratitude  and  affection.  The  attention  of  the 
civilized  world  had  been  drawn  to  the  event,  as  one 
even  of  national  importance.  It  was  said  also,  that  it 
was  unfortunately  too  well  known  that  the  object  of  our 
affectionate  attachment  had  spent  his  fortune  in  the  ser 
vice  of  mankind,  and  that  we  ourselves  had  received 
a  large  portion  of  the  wealth  which  he  had  never  hesi- 


136  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tated  freely  to  surrender  in  the  holy  cause  of  freedom. 
It  was  again  asked,  now  what  will  be  thought  of  us  in 
Europe  ;  and  what  is  much  more  important,  how  will  we 
deserve  to  be  thought  of,  if  we  send  back  our  venerable 
guest,  without  any  more  substantial  proof  of  gratitude, 
than  vague  expressions  of  regard. 

Notwithstanding  this  powerful  appeal ;  dwelling  upon 
the  magnimity,  the  refinement  of  feeling,  the  noble  deli 
cacy  of  sentiment,  which  prompted  general  Lafayette, 
wholly  regardless  of  his  interest,  during  our  revolution, 
to  look  only  to  the  interest  of  our  country, — and  this  too, 
made  in  the  most  impressive  and  touching  manner,  Mr. 
Macon  rose  the  second  time ;  and  after  disclaiming  the 
belief  that  general  Lafayette  had  ever  furnished  any 
document,  or  made  to  any  person  any  intimation  what 
ever,  on  the  subject  of  the  measure  now  before  the  sen 
ate,  said:  "As  for  himself,  he  wished  it  to  be  under 
stood  that,  in  opposing  this  bill,  he  discharged  what  was 
to  him  a  painful  duty.  His  objection  was  not  to  the  de 
tails,  but  to  the  principle  of  the  bill,  and  the  arguments 
of  the  gentlemen  had  not  satisfied  him  that  the  objection 
was  not  well  founded.  Not  that  he  had  any  doubt  of 
the  truth  of  the  statements  which  had  been  made  by  the 
gentleman  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Hayne.J  With 
respect  to  Europe,  Mr.  Macon  said,  that  he  had  no  doubt 
that  all  the  respect  which  had  been  shown  to  general 
Lafayette  here,  was  unpleasant  to  the  rulers  of  that  coun 
try.  On  this  side  of  the  water,  all  were  glad  to  see  him; 
even  the  tories  who  were  yet  living  would  be  glad  to 
see  him.  Among  a  nation  of  strangers  to  his  person, 
general  Lafayette  could  go  no  where  in  this  country 
without  meeting  with  friends.  No  hand,  in  any  part  of 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  137 

this  country,  touches  his,  but  he  may  feel  the  heart's 
blood  beat  in  its  fingers.  Mr.  Macon  said  he  should  re 
gret  it  if  the  South,  when  he  goes  there,  should  be  be 
hind  any  other  part  of  the  union  in  their  demonstrations 
of  regard  for  this  distinguished  man.  He  did  not  believe 
they  would  be.  Wherever  he  moves,  among  the  moun 
tains,  or  on  the  plains,  he  receives  a  heartfelt  welcome. 
This,  Mr.  Macon  said,  would  sufficiently  satisfy  Europe, 
if  any  doubt  remained  on  the  point,  what  is  the  opinion 
which  this  country  entertains  of  the  services  of  Lafa 
yette." 

Here  was  the  Roman  virtue  completely  displayed  in 
Mr.  Macon's  character,  which  induced  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
observe,  that  when  he  died,  it  would  be  the  last  of  the 
Romans  in  our  government.  Here  he  manifested,  in 
these  two  short  speeches,  that  no  consideration  whatever 
could  force  him  to  depart  from  the  principle  of  equal 
rights, — and  what  he  would  not  give  to  the  poorest 
American  soldier,  he  would  not  give  to  a  king  upon  his 
throne,  should  he  ask  it  of  him. 

The  next  example  we  shall  present  to  the  reader,  is 
his  remarks  in  the  senate,  on  December  30th,  on  the  bill 
for  the  relief  of  the  Columbian  college.  The  foundation 
of  this  bill  appears  to  be,  that  the  incorporated  company 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  this  institution,  had  be 
come  indebted  to  the  government,  by  contract,  for  the 
purchase  of  two  houses  on  Greanleaf  s  point,  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,— the  amount  $25,000  dollars  ; — the 
relief  sought,  was  simply  to  release  this  debt.  Stating, 
that  they  had  nothing  to  answer  this  claim,  but  the  two 
houses  for  which  the  debt  was  contracted  ; — representing 

12* 


138  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

that  the  college  had  not  as  yet  received  the  least  advan 
tage  from  this  property. 

When  their  application  for  a  charter  came  before  the  se 
nate,  all  intention  of  asking  pecuniary  aid  from  congress 
was  disavowed.  They  came  forward,  and  prayed,  that  an 
act  of  congress  might  pass  for  their  incorporation,  for  the 
better  management  of  the  funds  that  had  been  raised  by 
individual  subscription  in  the  different  parts  of  the  union, 
for  erecting  a  college  in  that  district.  This  made  it  purely 
an  eleemosynary  institution;  and  government  had  no 
control  over  it  except  the  power  to  modify  or  change,  or 
if  necessary,  repeal  their  charter.  It  possessed  no  visi- 
torial  power,  or  any  control  over  the  funds.  They  select 
ed  the  spot  themselves  for  its  erection  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  their  locating  it  in  that  district,  by  their 
own  will,  no  more  entitled  them  to  aid  from  government, 
than  if  they  had  located  it  in  Illinois  or  Maryland.  Not 
withstanding  these  considerations,  the  release  had  been 
very  ably  supported ;  when  Mr.  Macon  rose  and  obser 
ved  :  "That  claims  on  congress  were  something  like  wine 
and  spirits ;  they  improved  by  age.  He  agreed  to  every 
word  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Kentucky  had  said 
on  the  subject  of  education,  and  the  freedom  with  which 
students  of  all  religious  persuasions  were  admitted  in 
this  college.  But  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  ques 
tion.  It  appeared  to  him  that  by  some  bargain  or  other, 
the  college  was  indebted  to  the  United  states.  This 
bargain  was  made  between  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
and  the  trustees  of  the  college,  and  was  like  all  other 
bargains.  They  thought  they  had  made  a  profitable  one, 
but  they  were  mistaken.  Congress  might  lay  a  tax  on 
the  district  for  the  purposes  of  education.  In  all  the 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  139 

states  there  were  taxes  laid  for  the  purpose  of  education  ; 
and  there  was  not  a  college  ki  the  union  but  received 
students  of  every  denomination  of  religion.  They  never 
asked  what  was  his  creed;  but,  if  he  was  moral  and 
studious,  he  was  admitted.  Although  this  district  had 
no  representative,  Mr.  Macon  said,  it  was  in  a  better 
situation  than  any  other  part  of  the  union,  from  the 
quantity  of  public  money  expended  in  it ;  and  the  peo 
ple  of  it  were  as  able  to  pay  for  the  education  of  their 
own  children,  as  any  state  in  the  union.  Their  advan 
tages  were  immense.  This  bill  did  not  go  so  far  as  it 
did  last  session;  it  asked  now  only  for  $25,000;  but,  if  it 
were  for  only  25  cents,  his  objections  to  it  would  be  the 
same." 

Mr.  Macon,  on  the  17th  January,  1825,  made  the  fol 
lowing  remarks  on  the  engrossed  bill  to  abolish  imprison 
ment  for  debt, — saying:  "That  he  should  oppose  any  bill 
that  deprived  any  man  in  the  United  States  of  a  right ; 
but  did  not  understand  how  this  bill  would  have  that  ef 
fect.  This  bill  would  be  well  understood,  and  would  be 
taken  into  consideration  in  all  contracts  made  after  the 
4th  July  next ;  therefore,  he  could  not  understand  that 
any  right  was  touched  by  the  bill.  The  law  gave  notice, 
and  all  persons  making  contracts  after  the  time  fixed  by 
the  law,  would  do  so  with  their  eyes  open.  They  would 
know  the  remedy  they  must  apply ;  and,  therefore,  on  this 
point,  no  difficulty  could  possibly  occur.  Every  body 
was  agreed  upon  the  abstract  principle,  that  an  honest 
man  should  not  be  imprisoned  for  debt,  but  objections 
were  made  to  the  details  of  this  bill  for  its  accomplish 
ment.  The  real  question,  Mr.  Macon  said,  was,  whether 
this  bill  was  better  than  the  existing  system  ?  The  gen- 


140  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tleman  (alluding  to  Mr.  Vandyke,  of  Delaware,)  said 
that  there  were  not  many  persecuting  creditors ;  but  if 
there  were  only  ten  in  the  nation,  who  thought  they  had 
a  right  to  persecute,  not  to  prosecute,  he  would  endea 
vour  to  deprive  them  of  that  power.  Creditors,  some-how 
or  other,  generally  contrived  to  find  out  the  condition  of 
debtors.  There  would  be  no  more  difficulty  after  this 
bill  was  passed,  in  ascertaining  their  condition,  than  there 
is  now.  No  difficulty  could  in  his  opinion  possibly  arise. 
Mr.  Macon  concluded  by  saying,  that  he  did  not  know 
what  those,  who  were  not  professional  men,  wrere  to  do 
on  this  occasion,  when  the  gentlemen  of  the  bar  differed 
in  opinion  on  the  subject  of  the  details  of  the  bill.  For 
his  part,  approving  of  the  principles  of  the  bill,  he  should 
vote  with  those  who  were  in  its  favour." 

On  the  Jst  of  February,  1825,  the  senate  proceeded 
to  the  consideration  of  the  bill  for  the  suppression  of  pi 
racy  in  the  West  Indies.  The  motion  to  strike  out  the 
third  section,  (which  authorised  a  blockade  of  the  ports 
of  Cuba,  under  certain  circumstances)  being  still  pend 
ing,  it  was  stated  by  some  of  the  members,  at  the  time, 
that  the  documents  on  the  table  disclosed  the  facts,  that 
the  island  of  Cuba  was  occupied  by  pirates ;  that  from 
their  secure  asylums  on  shore,  they  issued  forth,  and  at 
tacked  the  merchantmen,  murdering  the  crew,  and  con 
verting  the  property  to  their  own  use  ;  that  these  depre 
dations  were  committed  by  men  known  to  the  Spanish 
authorities  in  Cuba,  and  suffered  with  impunity  to  live 
in  their  cities,  and  openly  to  sell  their  plunder, — afford 
ing,  beyond  contradiction,  all  the  protection  that  was  in 
their  power  to  these  plunderers.  This  information  in 
fluenced  some  of  the  members  to  be  in  favour  of  adopt- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  141 

ing  the  measure  of  blockade  as  being  the  best  method  of 
their  extermination,  which  was  thought  to  be  indispensi* 
ble  on  account  of  the  importance  of  trade  with  that  isl 
and.  Mr.  Macon  was  one  of  those  who  thought  differ 
ently — giving  his  reasons,  as  follows,  he  said:  "That there 
was  something  in  this  business  which  he  could  not  un 
derstand.  Insurance  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans, 
the  senate  was  informed,  was  but  one  to  one  and  a  half 
per  cent.  How  insurance  could  be  so  low,  whilst  so 
many  piracies  were  committed,  was  more  than  he  could 
comprehend.  During  the  wars  between  France  and  En 
gland,  when  a  great  many  captures  were  made,  insur 
ance  was  not  so  low  as  five  per  cent."  Mr.  Macon  then 
said,  "he  thought  that  no  necessity  could  justify  a  breach 
of  the  public  law.  We  had  endeavored,  and  successfully, 
to  preserve  that  law;  and  he  knew  but  one  instance  of  its 
violation,  that  one  he  always  thought  very  doubtful.  We 
had  constantly  maintained,  to  the  broadest  extent,  neu 
tral  rights  with  every  nation  with  whom  we  had  come  in 
contact.  This  blockade,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  was  of 
doubtful  character,  and  he  therefore  did  not  like  it.  It 
had  struck  him  as  a  curious  question,  what  would  be  the 
condition  of  a  French  or  English  vessel  if  taken  break 
ing  this  blockade  ;  would  she  be  a  prize,  or  what  ?  He 
was  not  willing  to  consent  to  any  act  which  would  jeop 
ardise  the  character  of  the  country.  National  charac 
ter  was  like  individual  character ;  it  ought  never  to  be 
doubtful;  it  ought  ever  to  be  so  pure  as  to  command  re 
spect.  It  was  to  his  mind  as  clear  as  the  light  of  day, 
that  the  president  had  the  power  of  suppressing  piracy. 
Mr.  Randall  had  proved,  that,  as  long  as  vessels  of  war 
were  there,  no  piracies  had  occurred ;  and  he  was  afraid 


142  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

that  carrying  money  had  produced  all  these  evils.  As 
long  as  the  vessels  of  war  were  there,  the  pirates  were 
invisible  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were  gone,  they  came  out. 
This  following  the  pirates  on  shore,  was  a  much  more 
difficult  matter  than  gentlemen  had  represented  it  to  be. 
How  were  the  pirates  to  be  known  when  they  got  on 
shore  ?  They  might  change  their  clothes,  or  any  thing  else. 
The  true  way  was  to  catch  them  on  the  water,  by  sending 
a  sufficient  force  to  Cuba,  and  to  hang  all  that  were 
caught ;  and  when  they  found  that  catching  and  hang 
ing  were  the  same  thing,  there  would  soon  be  an  end  to 
piracy."  Mr.  Macon  then  asked,  "why  would  gentle 
men  wish  to  go  farther  than  was  necessary?  What  could 
be  better  than  possessing  the  power  of  doing  all  they 
wanted  ?  It  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  race,  which  should  go 
farthest  in  his  particular  way.  What  more  was  necessa 
ry  than  to  order  the  vessels  to  be  taken  and  the  men  to 
be  hanged?" 

On  the  subject  of  arming  merchantmen,  Mr.  Macon 
"did  not  think  the  comparison  of  the  assassin  a  just  one  ; 
in  individual  rencounters  the  consequences  fell  on  them 
selves  alone  ;  but  here,  the  consequences  would  be  much 
more  serious  if  the  power  were  abused.  He  did  not  sup 
pose  that  merchantmen  generally,  would  seek  to  abuse 
it,  but  they  were  no  better  than  any  other  class  of  men, 
nor  did  he  believe  them  worse.  As  to  the  effect  these 
measures  would  produce  on  Spain,  they  were  not  worth 
thinking  of.  He  considered  Spain  out  of  the  question. 
What  was  Spain  ?  No  human  being  could  tell — there 
were  people  there,  and  a  sort  of  government — but  the 
French  were  there  to  keep  their  own  people  down." 
With  respect  to  the  people  of  Cuba,  Mr.  Macon,  said  "he 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  143 

knew  little  or  nothing.  He  always  had  understood  that 
the  trade  to  that  island  was  a  most  profitable  one  to  the 
United  States.  It  appeared  quite  impossible  to  him  that 
such  a  state  of  society  could  subsist  as  was  described  in 
Cuba;  he  should  hope  to  find  there  as  many  pure  as 
would  have  saved  Sodom  and  Gomorrah."  Mr.  Macon 
said,  "if  he  were  to  liken  this  blockade  to  any  thing,  it 
would  be  to  the  attack  on  Copenhagen  by  the  British. 
Britain  was  afraid  of  the  navel  power  of  her  rival  and 
enemy,  and  said  as  Rome  did,  Carthage  must  be  put 
down !  It  was  ludicrous  to  talk  of  arming  a  whole  na 
tion  against  four  or  five  hundred  bandits,  after  the  late 
contest  with  the  British.  He  saw  no  necessity  for  arm 
ing  the  merchantmen.  If  the  navy  could  not  protect  the 
merchantmen,  particularly  in  the  American  seas,  we 
ought  to  have  neither  navy  or  merchantmen.  He  recol 
lected  Preble  had  put  an  end  to  the  Tripolitan  war,  and 
Decatur  soon  ended  the  Algerine  war.  Both  of  these 
people  were  pirates  by  trade,  by  education,  and  he  had 
almost  said,  by  religion.  Our  vessels  went  there  at  once  ; 
and  cannot  our  vessels  catch  these  Cuba  bandits,  without 
our  attempting  to  make  an  interpolation  in  the  law  of  na 
tions  ?  It  was,  he  thought,  a  most  difficult  thing  to  alter 
public  law.  During  the  American  war,  all  the  powers 
of  Europe  assembled  to  do  it — Great  Britain  withstood 
it,  and  the  public  law  is  now  as  Great  Britain  then  said 
it  should  be.  It  appeared  to  him,  from  Mr.  Randall's 
report,  that  nothing  but  ships  were  wanting.  He  had  no 
opinion  of  stuffing  an  administration.  If  they  obtained 
what  they  wanted,  they  ought  to  be  held  responsible  for 
the  success  of  the  means  employed.  They  did  not  want 
either  armed  merchant  vessels,  or  a  blockade.  Of  the 


144  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

latter,  the  president  speaks  with  great  delicacy ;  and 
from  the  former,  the  secretary  of  the  navy  thinks  mis 
chief  may  arise.  Therefore,  he  thought  it  would  be  wise 
to  give  the  administration  what  they  wanted,  but  not 
more ;  and  that  he  was  willing  to  do  now.  He  did  not 
wish  to  make  any  profession  of  his  wish  to  see  the  rob 
bers  exterminated;  for  we  were  to  be  judged,  not  by  our 
words,  but  by  our  deeds.  There  was  not  a  civilised  man 
in  the  world,  but  would  wish  it ;  and  he  could  not  call 
that  inhabitant  of  Cuba,  a  civilised  man,  that  encouraged 
piracy.  They  waged  war  against  the  whole  human  race  ; 
a  war  of  the  most  disastrous  kind.  They  could  be  gov 
erned  by  no  rule  towards  them,  but  that  of  extermina 
tion  ;  and  as  they  could  be  repressed  most  efficiently 
without  either  blockading  them,  or  arming  the  merchant 
men,  he  was  opposed  to  both  measures." 

On  the  llth  of  February,  1825,  the  senate,  on  motion 
of  Mr.  Smith,  took  up  the  bill  making  appropriations  for 
the  military  service  for  the  year  1825. 

The  committee  of  finance  of  the  senate,  to  which  this 
bill  had  been  referred,  reported  it  with  a  proposition  to 
amend  it  by  striking  out  the  following  clause:  "For 
making  surveys,  and  carrying  on  the  operations  of  the 
board  of  engineers,  in  relation  to  internal  improve 
ments,  and  in  addition  to  an  unexpended  balance  on 
hand,  $25,567."  On  this  occasion,  Mr.  Macon  begged 
leave  to  offer  a  few  remarks  : 

"  In  the  begining  of  this  government,"  he  said,  "no 
body  believed  congress  had  any  thing  to  do  with  in 
ternal  improvements.  Now  every  body  almost  was  for 
it.  The  history  of  the  Cumberland  road  proved  this. 
When  that  road  was  commenced,  the  states  were  to 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  145 

give  their  consent,  and  nothing  could  be  done  without 
it.  Now,  when  the  road  is  proposed  to  be  carried  through 
the  states  beyond  the  river  Ohio,  and  through  Ohio,  no 
consent  is  deemed  necessary :  and  it  seemed  now,  that 
congress  could  survey  states,  and  make  roads,  and  there 
was  nothing  but  what  they  could  do.  These  roads  were 
to  be,  too,  for  the  transportation  of  the  mail,  and  for  the 
purposes  of  war  and  commerce ;  but  they  managed  to 
effect  all  these  objects  without  the  exercise  of  this  pow 
er.  If  this  government,  said  Mr.  Macon,  is  to  begin  this 
road  system,  it  ought  not  to  be  accomplished  indirectly, 
by  small  appropriations,  but  should  be  done  at  once.  By 
granting  appropriation  for  surveys,  they  did  not  pledge 
themselves  to  do  any  thing  more,  after  these  surveys 
should  be  accomplished  ;  but  notwithstanding,  they  were 
going  on,  step  by  step,  just  like  the  building  of  this  cap 
ital,  he  no  more  knew  what  was  to  be  accomplished 
in  this  great  plan,  than  he  did  when  he  saw  the  first 
foundation  of  this  capitol.  He  was  opposed  to  the  whole 
system,  and  let  congress  vote  as  much  as  they  pleased 
in  its  favour,  he  should  always  vote  against  it  as  often  as 
it  came  up.  He  did  not  pretend  to  lay  down  his  opin 
ion  as  a  rule  for  others,  but  he  should  continue  to  follow 
it  till  he  found  it  was  wrong.  Mr.  Macon  said  he  regarded 
this  system  of  internal  improvement,  as  one  of  the  most 
dangerous  that  had  been  established  in  the  United  States. 
The  states  should  not,  he  thought,  come  to  the  general 
government,  for  their  internal  improvement.  Every  state 
had  been  going  on  with  internal  improvements,  and  he 
was  of  opinion  that  the  general  government  should 
leave  them  to  go  on  in  their  own  way,  without  intermed 
dling  at  all." 
13 


146  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

It  was  stated  in  opposition  to  these  sentiments  of  Mrv 
Macon,  that  internal  improvements  were  the  grandest 
objects  that  could  engage  the  attention  of  this  country ; 
and  they  were  so  felt  by  all  who  engaged  in  so  praisewor 
thy  a  pursuit.  That  last  session,  this  subject  was  fully  dis 
cussed.  The  subject  of  internal  improvement  had  been- 
sanctioned  by  both  houses  of  congress,  and  an  appropri 
ation  had  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  sur 
veys  :  the  present  appropriation  was  for  a  similar  pur 
pose, — and  they  should  not  stop  in  full  career.  Congress- 
would  not  exhibit  the  strange  inconsistency  of  adopting 
an  important  proposition  one  session,  and  throwing  it 
aside  the  next — it  would  not,  it  was  said,  be  compatible 
with  the  dignity  of  that  assembly,  thus  to  stop  short.  If 
they  really  wished  to  attain  the  object  proposed  by  pas 
sing  the  act  of  last  session,  how  could  they  now  arrest  its 
progress  by  refusing  the  small  appropriation  of  $28,000, 
It  was  thought  to  be  acting  very  disrespectfully  towards 
the  president  to  refuse  this  appropriation,  which  was  to 
enable  him  to  complete  the  surveys,  which  he  had  com 
menced,  or  contemplated,  in  obedience  to  their  law.  As 
to  the  constitutionality  of  the  subject,  it  was  insisted, 
that  that  had  been  most  fully  discussed  at  the  last  ses 
sion, — but  on  the  present  occasion,  gentlemen  had  asser 
ted  that  congress  did  not  possess  the  power.  It  was  sta 
ted,  that  a  majority  of  both  houses  stood  committed  on 
this  subject;  they  owed  it  to  the  nation  to  make  this 
small  appropriation,  because  they  had  expressed  their 
opinion  in  the  most  solemn  and  deliberate  form ;  and  they 
had  made  an  appropriation  for  the  purpose,  by  law.  And 
even  those  gentlemen  who  now  hesitated,  and  those 
who  originally  hesitated,  ought  to  join  with  them  and 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  147 

vote  in  its  favour.     All  this,  had  no  effect  upon  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  opinion  ;  he  rose  and  expressed  his  opinion : 

"  That  whatever  conversation  had  been  held  with  any 
department,  could  not  be  delivered  to  the  senate,  unless 
it  came  officially  from  that  department.  He  certainly 
did  not  understand  the  constitution  as  some  gentlemen 
seemed  to  do,  that  because  a  thing  was  once  done,  it 
must  become  constitutional — -that  was  not  his  under 
standing  of  it.  He  did  not  recollect,  in  the  United  States, 
that  a  single  law  had  been  adjudged  unconstitutional. 
If  this  were  the  fact,  that  the  passing  of  any  law  made 
that  subject  constitutional,  then  they  would  be  like  Great 
Britain,  where  the  parliament  was  omnipotent,  and  its 
acts  were  the  constitution  of  the  country.  One  remark 
able  case  had  been  judged  one  way,  and  the  constitu 
tional  authority  was  all  the  other  way.  This  case  had 
never  been  settled  in  any  other  way,  and  the  decision 
of  the  people  seemed  to  have  given  a  character  to  the 
constitution  in  that  particular.  Mr.  Macon  enquired  of 
what  use  these  surveys  would  be,  if  congress  were  not 
prepared  to  go  the  fuil  length.  Every  state  was  endea 
voring  to  do  something  for  itself,  and  if  the  plans  propo 
sed  by  the  general  government  did  not  accord  with  the 
views  of  the  states,  the  states  would  never  do  any  thing 
in  it,  amd  all  the  surveys  made  concerning  roads  would 
be  useless.  It  had  been  urged  that  if  this  law  were  not 
passed,  an  act  of  congress  would  be  repealed  by  the  re 
fusal.  Mr.  Macon  said,  that  the  sum  appropriated,  would 
be  expended  under  the  law ;  but  one  congress  could  not 
bind  the  hands  of  another,  to  make  any  appropriation ; 
they  were  at  all  times  free  and  independent  to  do,  or  not 
to  do.  as  they  thought  proper.  If  the  doctrines  he  had 


148  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

heard  this  day  were  true,  there  was  no  one  thing  the 
government  could  not  do — they  were  making  roads  and 
canals,  and  before  long  he  should  not  be  surprised  if  they 
made  a  canal  for  the  benefit  of  the  navy.  They  man 
aged  to  accomplish  all  these  things  under  some  clause  or 
other  of  the  constitution,  and  by  and  by  they  would  be 
mixed  all  up  together  into  a  kind  of  a  pot-pie.  Let  any 
man  examine  the  federalist,  or  the  debates  of  the  Vir 
ginia  convention,  and  they  would  find  that  no  such  ex 
tension  was  given  to  any  article  of  the  constitution.  How 
are  we  progressing?  said  Mr.  Macon.  We  get  power 
faster  than  the  people  get  money.  It  appears  tome,  that 
the  whole  of  this  thing  bears  a  most  extraordinary  char 
acter — the  country  is  involved,  the  people  are  not  able 
to  pay  their  debts ;  and  I  do  maintain,  that  this  country 
is  not  in  a  condition  to  go  on  with  expensive  projects. 
The  appropriation  now  asked  for,  is  only  $30,000,  say 
gentlemen;  but  to  me  whose  dealings  at  home  are  in 
the  small  way,  this  appears  a  very  large  sum.  There  is 
not  one  man  in  an  hundred  ;  no,  nor  in  a  thousand, 
throughout  the  union,  who  is  worth  that  sum,  unincum- 
bered  with  debt — he  is  a  rich  man  in  the  interior  of  the 
country  who  is  worth  so  much." 

Referring  to  the  subject  of  estimates,  Mr.  Macon  said  : 
"The  chairman  of  the  committee  on  finance,  with  all  his 
sagacity  and  acknowledged  abilities,  could  not  tell  him 
without  counting  them,  how  many  the  committee  had  re 
ceived,  or  whom  they  were  from.  Every  thing  was  chan 
ging  in  this  government,  and  they  were  in  his  opinion, 
doing  all  business  in  a  very  loose  manner." 

"Mr.  Macon  said,  he  had  another  objection;  these  en 
gineers  were  designed  for  army  purposes.  They  had 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  149 

no  right  to  divert  them  from  their  legitimate  duties,  by 
making  them  civil  engineers ;  that  formed  no  part  of  the 
contract  of  the  government  with  them;  it  would  be  like 
enlisting  soldiers  to  fight,  and  then  to  force  them  to  make 
roads.  Could  they  suppose  their  high-minded  officers 
would  like  to  be  going  about  the  country  carrying  the 
chain,  and  taking  levels?  No.  They  were  raised  for 
fighting,  if  fighting  were  necessary ;  not  for  making  roads. 
It  was  argued,  that  it  was  necessary  to  enter  into  detail. 
Mr.  Macon  said  they  fixed  on  the  places  for  light  houses 
and  buoys,  and  they  established  post  routes ;  they  acted 
from  the  best  information  they  could  get,  and  in  that 
way  they  did  legislate  in  detail.  He  was  for  less  dis 
cussion  and  more  legislation,  and  yet  he  thought  they 
now  legislated  ten  times  as  much  as  they  ought  to  do. 
He  had  advised  them  to  legislate  concerning  West  Point; 
to  fix  the  number  that  should  be  there,  and  apportion 
them  amongst  the  states.  They  said  it  was  useless,  and 
he  acquiesced,  because  he  knew  he  had  no  chance  of 
standing  against  that  committee." 

"Mr.  Macon  said  he  would  fix  every  thing  he  could 
by  law,  and  leave  nothing  to  discretion.  The  natural 
end  of  all  discretion,  in  his  opinion,  was  favouritism. 
He  should  like  to  see  these  details  published.  If  the 
sovereignty  were  in  the  people,  as  was  often  boasted  in 
that  house,  why  not  let  them  see  every  thing,  if  it  was 
only  a  bargain  of  75  cents  a  day.  In  his  part  of  the 
country,  a  man  could  be  hired  for  25  cents  a  day,  and 
work  hard  too  all  day  long.  Let  the  people  see  how  their 
money  went.  The  more  we  legislate  in  detail,  said  Mr. 
Macon,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  people  and  for  the 
executive.  Nothing  could,  in  his  opinion,  embarrass  the 
13* 


150  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

executive  more,  than  leaving  too  much  to  his  discretion. 
If  he  had  law  for  his  guide,  he  would  be  sure  to  be  safe; 
but  if  things  were  left  to  his  discretion,  that  might  not 
probably  agree  with  the  discretion  of  other  people, 
which  might  produce  some  trouble  and  inconvenience." 

"Mr.  Macon  considered  this  question  as  one  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  this  nation;  and  he  should  consider 
it  his  duty  to  stop  it,  under  the  full  belief  that  the  soon 
er  it  was  stopt,  the  better.  He  had  stated  some  time 
ago,  that  he  had  relinquished  all  hopes  of  seeing  the 
taxes  lessened  on  the  people.  Every  thing  appeared  as 
if  they  were  going  to  be  increased — a  certain  sum  must 
be  kept  for  the  sinking  fund;  that  only  kept  up  the  credit 
of  the  public  debt,  or  it  would  not  otherwise  sell ;  and  he 
began  to  think  now,  that  the  debt  would  never  be  paid." 

"Mr.  Macon  concluded  by  saying,  that  he  wished  to 
see  that  day  come  when  this  government  would  follow 
the  examples  set  by  Britain,  (and  he  did  not  often  go 
there  for  example,)  who,  during  the  last  few  years,  had 
taken  off  taxes  to  the  amount  of  eight  and  a  half  millions 
sterling." 

The  senate  next  took  up  the  bill  authorising  a  sub 
scription  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  of  fifteen  hun 
dred  shares  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  Delaware  and 
Chesapeake  Canal.  Upon  which  Mr.  Macon,  said  :  "He 
rose  with  a  full  heart,  to  take  his  last  farewell  of  an  old 
friend  that  he  had  always  admired  and  loved  ;  he  meant 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  On  this  occasion, 
he  said,  he  had  experienced  a  difficulty  in  expressing  his 
feelings.  Perhaps  old  people  thought  more  of  what  took 
place  when  they  were  young,  than  of  the  occurrences  of 
after  times ;  but  in  times  of  old,  whenever  any  question 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL 

touching  the  constitution  was  brought  forward,  it  was  dis^ 
cussed  day  after  day;  that  time  was  now  passed.     Gen 
tlemen  say  it  is  not  necessary  now  to  enter  into  the  con 
stitutional  question  in  this  measure.    The  first  time  he  had 
ever  known  them  refuse  to  discuss  the  constitutional  ques 
tion,  involved  by  a  proposition,  was,  when  the  act  was 
passed  incorporating  the  present  bank  of  thirty-five  mil 
lions  ;  from  that  time  the  constitution  had  been  asleep. 
"  Every  scheme  that  was  proposed,  was  with  a  view  of 
tying  the  people  together.     The  late  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  to  give  them  a  currency  alike  throughout  all  the 
states.     It  was  said  at  the  time  that  this  was  impossible  ; 
the  friends  of  the  bank  insisted  they  could  do  it ;  but 
had  they  done  it  ?     Then  they  got  into  a  system  of  ma 
nufacturing,  and  every  body  was  to  get  rich  by  it.     The 
next  thing  was  the  system  of  a  great  navy  arid  fortifica 
tions,  which  was  to  make  them  one  people  from  the  At 
lantic  to  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  from  the  bay  of  Passa- 
maquoddy  to  Florida;  but  had  it  done  so  ?  And  now  the 
people  were  to  be  tied  together  by  roads  and  canals.  He 
thought  the  plan  of  the  gentleman  from  Maryland,  (Mr. 
Smith)  was  as  wise  a  one  as  ever  was  devised  to  add 
power  to  the  government.     Do  a  little  now,  and  a  little 
then,  and,  by  and  by  they  would  render  this  government 
as  powerful  and  unlimited  as  the  British  government  was. 
We  go  on  deciding  on  these  things  without  looking  at 
the  constitution;  and  I  suppose  we  will,  in  a  few  years, 
do  as  was  done  in  England — we  shall  appoint  a  commit 
tee  to  hunt  for  precedents.  My  heart  is  full  when  I  think 
of  all  this ;  and  what  is  to  become  of  us  I  cannot  say. 
This  government  was  intended  to  be  a  limited  one ;  its 
great  objects  were  war  and  peace,  and  now  we  are  en- 


152  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

deavoring  to  prove  that  these  measures  are  necessary, 
both  as  war  and  peace  measures.  Mr.  Macon  said  he 
would  beg  leave  to  call  the  attention  of  the  senate  to  a 
celebrated  report,  made  in  Virginia  in  1799,  for  a  true  ex 
position  of  the  constitutional  powers  of  this  government. 
If  there  was  reason  to  be  alarmed  at  the  growing  power 
of  the  general  government,  how  much  more  has  taken 
place  since?  Congress  now  stopped  at  nothing,  which  it 
deemed  expedient,  and  the  constitution  was  construed  to 
give  power  for  any  grand  scheme.  This  change  was 
brought  about,  little  by  little ;  so  much  had  never  been  at 
tempted  at  one  time,  as  would  agitate  the  people.  Com 
pare  these  things  with  those  which  had,  in  old  times, 
been  done  under  the  constitution,  and  the  change  would 
be  most  astonishing.  The  end  of  them  all  would  be  in 
the  vulgar  tongue,  taxation,  He  had  before  expressed 
his  belief  that  the  public  debt  would  never  be  paid  off. 
They  were  following  Great  Britain,  step  by  step,  and  the 
final  result  would  be,  they  would  cease  to  look  to  the 
debt  itself,  but  think  only  of  the  interest.  The  history 
of  the  British  government  would  prove  that  every  war 
had  increased  the  public  debt  and  added  to  the  burthens 
of  the  people;  and  what  was  the  result  in  America  ?  At 
the  time  of  the  revolution,  the  war  produced  eighty-four 
millions  of  funded  debt ;  this  was  now  increased  to  ninety 
millions,  and  instead  of  paying  it,  they  were  following 
the  example  of  Great  Britain,  and  turning  it  into  four 
and  an  half  per  cent,  stock,  which  like  the  three  per  cent, 
stock,  no  one  would  buy  at  par. 

"  Mr.  Macon  said  he  was  against  this  government 
connecting  itself  with  any  company.  He  would  have  it 
get  clear  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  Let  it  ap- 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  153 

point  no  officer;  and  if  it  cannot  dispose  of  its  stock  on 
good  terms,  let  it  get  rid  of  it  at  any  rate.  His  idea  of 
internal  improvement  in  this  country,  was,  to  take  from 
the  people  all  unnecessary  burthens.  Let  them  have 
plenty  of  wholesome  food  and  good  clothing,  and  he 
doubted  not  they  would  continue  to  raise  boys  and  girls 
who  would  become  men  and  women.  These  were  the 
sorts  of  internal  improvements  he  desired  to  see.  It 
was  in  vain  to  talk  of  any  other  internal  improvements 
strengthening  the  country,  when  there  was  ninety  mil 
lions  of  public  debt,  and  above  a  hundred  of  private  debt, 
owing.  Much  of  the  latter,  indeed,  was  called  accommo 
dation  paper,  but  he  knew  it  was  false.  These  schemes, 
he  thought,  were  monstrous  strides,  considering  the  char 
acter  of  the  government.  The  gentleman  from  Mary 
land,  (Mr.  Smith)  was  for  laying  the  constitution  aside 
on  this  bill,  but  that  was  nothing  new  in  that  gentleman, 
for  he  had  constantly  pursued  that  plan  ever  since  he 
had  known  him.  Mr.  Macon  was  afraid  they  were  going 
to  follow  the  system  recommended  by  a  member  of  a  cer 
tain  foreign  legislature.  When  he  was  asked  what  mea 
sures  he  would  adopt  to  make  the  people  peaceable  and 
submissive,  he  replied,  'tax  them  heavily,  and  collect  it 
rigidly ;  give  them  enough  to  do,  and  they  would  never 
plague  the  government.'  This  was  the  practice  in  Europe, 
and  it  had  succeeded  very  well.  As  to  the  meaning  of 
the  constitution,  Mr.  Macon  said,  those  who  composed 
the  convention  that  formed  it,  certainly  must  have  known 
what  they  intended,  and  all  the  writers  of  the  day  refer 
red  to  no  powers  of  this  kind ;  but  it  seemed  the  people 
of  the  present  day  understood  what  the  framers  of  the 
constitution  intended  better  than  they  did  themselves. 


154  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

He  could  give  no  other  names  to  his  feelings  than  fears. 
It  was  true  he  had  no  fears  for  his  personal  liberty,  but 
he  feared  his  descendants  would  be  taxed  up  to  the  nose, 
so  that  if  they  got  breath,  it  would  be  as  much  as  they 
could  do.  The  country  now  was  not  in  a  sitation  to  pay 
direct  taxes.  In  time  of  war,  there  was  fifteen  per  cent, 
difference  in  the  taxes  of  the  different  states  ;  but  the 
same  thing  would  not  be  suffered  now.  He  was  certain 
the  government  could  neither  lay  them  nor  collect  them 
at  this  time.  His  fears  might  be  groundless  ;  they  might 
be  nothing  but  the  suggestions  of  a  worn  out  old  man, 
but  they  were  sincere,  and  he  was  alarmed  for  the  safety 
of  this  government." 

On  the  20th  December,  1825,  the  resolution  submit 
ted  by  Mr.  Woodbury,  relating  to  bounty  lands,  being 
taken  up  : 

"Resolved,  That  the  committee  on  the  public  lands  be 
instructed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  requesting 
the  president  of  the  United  States  to  cause  to  be  pub 
lished  a  detailed  statement  of  the  names,  rank  and  line, 
in  the  continental  army,  of  such  persons  as  have  not  ap 
plied  for  the  revolutionary  land  warrants  issued,  and  re 
maining  for  them  in  the  bounty  land  office,  and  of  such 
other  persons  as  appear  on  the  records  of  said  office,  now 
entitled  to  have  revolutionary  land  warrants  issued  to 
them." 

Mr.  Macon  said,  "he  had  his  doubts  as  to  the  benefi 
cial  effects  proposed  to  be  derived  from  the  resolution. 
It  appeared  to  him,  that  instead  of  preventing  specula 
tion,  it  would  encourage  speculators  to  ride  over  the 
country,  buying  up  these  claims.  In  early  life,  in  con 
gress,  Mr,  Macon  said,  he  remembered  there  was  one 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  155 

question  that  bordered  on  this ;  it  was  to  get  the  statute 
of  limitation  suspended  for  revolutionary  services.  Spe 
culators  went  out  and  administered  all  over  the  union, 
on  the  property  of  persons  having  claims,  and  in  one 
case,  two  administrators  came  forward  upon  the  same 
estate,  and  the  man  himself,  the  original  claimant,  upon 
whose  estate  they  pretended  to  have  administered  came 
afterwards.  He  was  thought  by  some  to  be  an  impos 
tor — but  his  captain  happened  to  be  in  Philadelphia,  to 
prove  his  right,  and  the  man  received  his  claim.  Pub 
lishing  these  names,  Mr.  Macon  said,  would  be  to  set 
all  the  speculators  abroad  throughout  the  nation.  If  the 
law  had  expired,  allowing  these  people  time  to  obtain 
their  warrants,  he  would  submit  whether  it  would  not 
be  better  to  revive  it,  that  they  might  get  their  warrants, 
without  any  speculation  on  the  subject." 

February  14th,  18-26,  the  senate  took  up  the  bill  for 
the  survey  of  a  route  for  a  canal,  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  gulph  of  Mexico. 

"Mr.  Macon  said,  the  opinion  had  been  expressed, 
that,  while  the  territories  remain  as  such,  it  was  compe 
tent  for  the  government  to  make  improvements  in  them  ; 
but,  suppose  improvements  begun,  and  before  they  are 
finished,  the  territory  becomes  a  state, — what  is  to  be 
the  consequence?  The  momenta  territory  becomes  a 
state,  the  general  government  must  cease  to  act;  and  if 
it  cannot  go  on,  all  the  money  and  labor  expended  may 
be  thrown  away.  In  the  work  now  proposed,  Mr.  Ma 
con  said,  they  ought  to  have  proceeded  as  in  all  other 
similar  objects — they  ought  to  have  estimates  of  the  cost, 
before  they  begin  the  work.  As  for  himself,  he  did  not 
now,  and  never  did  like  these  territorial  governments; 


156  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

and  by  this  course  of  making  improvements  in  them,  it 
only  retards  their  becoming  states :  for  when  they  re 
quire  the  requisite  population,  they  will  still  put  it  off, 
until  all  the  improvements  they  desire  are  made.  One 
wants  a  canal,  another  a  road ;  and  when  they  get  all  they 
want,  they  come  into  the  union  flourishing  states,  with 
nothing  more  to  ask.  Mr.  Macon  thought  gentlemen 
in  an  error,  when  they  spoke  of  ten  per  cent,  being  char 
ged  for  insurance  to  Cuba;  he  was  under  the  impression 
it  was  never  so  high  as  that ;  and  now,  he  understood,  it 
was  from  one  to  one  and  half  per  cent.,  and  this  includes 
the  dangers  of  the  coast,  particularly  the  two  capes  of 
North  Carolina,  &c.  Mr.  Macon  did  not  agree  with  Mr. 
Homes,  about  sinking  this  territory  in  the  gulph  of  Mex 
ico  ;  he  had  rather  have  the  land  than  so  much  more 
water.  This  territory  of  Florida  was,  by  the  way,  a 
strange  country  ;  sometimes  it  is  very  good — no  country 
like  it — then  again,  it  is  not  worth  having,  and  to  be  sunk 
in  the  sea.  Mr.  Macon  said,  he  did  not  like  to  go  on  in 
this  way — the  government  was  constantly  gaining  pow 
er  by  little  bits.  A  waggon  road  was  made  under  a 
treaty  with  an  Indian  tribe,  twenty  odd  years  ago ;  and 
now  it  becomes  a  great  national  object,  to  be  kept  up  by 
large  appropriations.  We  thus  go  on  by  degrees,  step 
by  step,  until  we  get  almost  unlimited.  Little  things 
were  often  of  great  importance  in  their  consequences. 
The  revolution  in  this  country  was  produced  by  a  tri 
fling  tax  on  tea.  There  were  five  or  six  different  wTays 
found  out  of  getting  power, — by  construction,  by  treaty, 
by  implication,  and  so  forth.  He  was  not  willing  to  take 
any  of  them.  He  was  willing  to  execute  the  constitu 
tion  just  as  it  was  understood  by  those  who  made  it,  and 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  157 

no  other.  Mr.  Macon  concluded  by  saying,  there  were 
constant  applications  before  congress,  for  these  objects ; 
yet  nothing  was  more  clear  to  him,  than  that,  if  they 
could  be  executed  with  profit,  they  would  be  done  by 
private  enterprise ;  and  that  it  was  only  when  the  case  was 
different,  that  congress  was  appealed  to." 

Here  several  gentlemen  took  the  floor,  and  some  of 
them  having  dropt  a  remark  concerning  liberal  voting, 
Mr.  Macon  rose  and  said,  "That,  whether  he  voted  libe 
rally  or  not  liberally,  he  would  willingly  leave  it  to  his 
constituents  to  decide  on  his  votes.  The  fact  was  in  re 
gard  to  the  anticipated  augmentation  of  the  value  of 
lands,  in  consequence  of  making  the  canal  in  the  terri 
tory,  that  the  highest  lands  ever  sold  by  the  government 
were  sold  where  there  was  no  improvement;  not  even  a 
road, — he  meant  (so  he  was  understood)  Madison  coun 
ty,  in  Alabama.  As  to  voting  the  public  money  liberally, 
Mr.  Macon  said,  he  wished  to  see  every  thing  saved  that 
could  be  saved,  to  meet  those  16,000,000  of  the  public 
debt  which  fell  due  this  year,  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  had  said  we  must  borrow  to  meet.  Mr.  Macon 
thought  it  best  to  husband  our  resources,  and  pay  off  as 
much  as  we  could,  and  satisfy  every  body  that  there  is 
a  prospect  of  paying  the  debt  off.  He  repeated,  he  did 
not  think  it  was  necessary  to  expend  money  in  the  terri 
tory  in  this  way,  to  advance  the  value  of  the  lands.  He 
had  no  doubt  the  land  would  sell  as  fast  as  the  Indian 
title  was  extinguished.  It  was  the  country  where  sugar 
and  other  valuable  articles  would  be  produced,  and 
the  bounty  on  sugar  would  make  the  lands  sell  fast 


enough.' 


14 


158  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Here  his  colleague,  Mr.  Branch,  said:  "He  had  ever 
yielded  to  the  force  of  the  arguments  of  his  worthy 
colleague  (Mr.  Macon,)  and  to  his  long  tried  experi 
ence;  and  he  should  examine  well  the  ground  on  which 
he  stood,  before  he  ventured  to  differ  from  him.  He 
took  it  a  little  unkind  in  Mr.  Macon.  to  put  the  construc 
tion  he  had  done  on  the  remarks  he  had  made  to  the 
senate.  He  should  have  considered  the  different  grounds 
on  which  they  stood;  a  patriotic  devotion  of  thirty  years 
had  placed  him  (Mr.  Macon,)  firmly  in  the  confidence 
of  his  friends  at  home.  His  friend,  in  the  course  of  his 
remarks  he  had  made  to  the  senate,  had  alluded  to  the 
vote  given  yesterday  in  relation  to  authorizing  the  open 
ing  a  road  from  Tennessee  to  Mississippi;  and  he  did 
vote  for  that  appropriation." 

"Mr.  Macon  protested  that  he  meant  no  improper 
reference  to  his  colleague,  in  the  few  remarks  he  had 
made.  He  never  entertained  a  thought  that  any  one 
was  to  be  influenced  by  the  opinion  of  another.  He 
was  very  sorry  that  his  colleague  had  misunderstood 
him." 

We  have  here  given  all  the  speeches  Mr.  Macon  made 
in  the  senate,  which  we  had  in  our  possession, — and 
given  them  precisely  as  they  came  to  hand  in  our  exam 
ination  of  the  register  of  debates  of  1824,  5  and  6. 

In  these  speeches,  the  reader  not  only  will  discover 
that  pride  of  truth,  which  knew  no  extremes,  and  pre 
serves,  in  every  latitude  of  life,  the  right-angled  charac 
ter  of  man — but  he  will  see  also,  that  Mr.  Macon  was 
made  to  be  himself,  to  think  his  own  thoughts  and  speak 
them;  and  not  that  flitting,  following  things,  that  is  but 
the  shadow  of  what  others  say  and  do.  And  that  when- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  159 

ever  any  subject  came  before  the  senate  in  which  the 
principles  of  his  government  was  involved,  he  always 
boldly  expressed  his  opinion  upon  it,  in  the  spirit  and 
language  of  the  philosopher,  as  pure  as  Aristides,  and  as 
patriotic  as  Regulus, — paying  but  little  attention,  to  a 
learned  style  or  the  beauty  of  words,  which  he  looked 
upon,  as  the  money  of  fools,  the  machine  and  material 
which  the  lawyer,  the  priest,  the  doctor,  the  charlatan, 
of  every  sort  and  kind,  pick  the  pocket  and  put  the  fet 
ters  upon  the  planters  of  this  country — and  who  in  their 
attempts  frequently  to  talk  and  write  finely,  only  betray 
their  poverty,  like  the  fine  ladies  in  the  vicar  of  Wake- 
field,  by  their  outrageous  attempts  to  be  very  genteel. 

It  is  evident  from  the  political  principles  advanced  by 
Mr.  Macon  in  these  speeches,  in  so  plain,  simple  and 
unvarnished  a  manner,  that  they  rriust  be  intelligible 
even  to  the  humblest  capacity — that  the  safety  of  our 
government  depends  upon  keeping  up  a  proper  jealousy 
of  state  rights,  and  state  sovereignties,  and  distinctly 
tracicg  and  preserving  the  lines  of  demarcation  between 
federal  and  state  powers — and  every  step  towards  con 
solidation  is  a  step  towards  monarchy,  and  evey  step  to 
wards  monarchy  is  a  step  towards  consolidation.  They 
will  be  found  to  be  mutually  the  cause  and  effect  of  each 
other. 

It  is  not  strange,  that  about  fifty  years  ago,  the  ap 
proach  of  an  elective  and  limited  monarchy  should  have 
been  looked  upon  with  less  dread,  than  it  was  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  afterwards,  when  we  had  experienced  the 
advantages  and  tested  the  strength  of  our  present  sys 
tem.  Nor  is  it  strange,  that,  as  our  heads  are  turned 
with  the  magnificence  of  our  general  government ;  when 


160  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

we  are  contemplating  the  making  of  canals  and  roads 
through  every  part  of  the  continent, — and  driving  tun 
nels  through  the  Allegany  mountains,  by  the  strong  arm 
of  the  union.  Considering  these  things,  it  is  not  strange 
we  say,  that  many  in  this  government  may  look  with 
some  degree  of  complacency  upon  the  disappearance  of 
the  jealous  cautions  and  calculating  principles  of  demo 
cracy,  which  have  a  direct  tendency  to  check  such  mag 
nificence.  Neither  is  it  strange  that  they  view  without 
apprehension,  the  progress  of  measures  calculated  to  in 
crease  the  federal  government  in  its  incipient,  insidious 
steps  towards  monarchy. 

The  history  of  our  government,  traced  to  its  origin, 
will  show,  that,  when  the  colonies  dissolved  their  con 
nexion  with  Great  Britian,  the  sovereign  power  devolved 
upon  the  people  of  this  country.  The  people  of  each 
state  formed  or  adopted  a  constitution,  with  more  or  less 
power.  Some  states  invested  their  government  with 
entire  sovereignty;  others  with  limited  powers.  During 
the  war  of  the  revolution,  the  states  took  a  part  of  the 
powers,  of  a  general  nature,  from  their  state  constitutions, 
and,  with  them,  formed  a  confederate  government  for  the 
thirteen  states,  to  enable  congress  to  carry  on  the  war, 
and  to  form  treaties  with  other  nations;  the  states  re 
tained  the  power  over  commerce  and  taxation  ;  congress 
supplied  the  public  treasury  by  quotas  on  the  states. 

This  mode  of  supplying  the  treasuiy  proved  ineffi 
cient,  and  led  to  the  formation  of  the  present  constitu 
tion  on  the  basis  of  the  confederation.  The  only  essen 
tial  powers  that  were  added,  were  those  over  commerce 
and  taxation  ;  the  government  of  territories ;  the  dispo- 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  161 

sition  of  the  public  land,  and  national  judiciary ;  and  the 
government  was  made  to  have  a  national  operation. 

Why  did  the  people  of  the  several  states  divide  the 
powers  of  sovereignty  between  the  two  governments? 
The  history  of  the  times  shows  that  it  was  done  from  a 
conviction  that  a  single  national  government  was  unsafe, 
and  would  prove  hostile  to  liberty  ;  that  a  single  govern 
ment,  for  a  country  of  such  extent  and  diversity  of  in 
terest,  must  be  invested  with  so  much  energy,  as  would 
lead  to  despotism. 

The  people  of  the  several  states  divided  those  powers 
which  they  thought  fit  to  delegate,  between  the  two 
governments,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  adapt  them  to  the 
respective  ends  for  which  they  were  designed. 

The  state  governments  were  intended  to  protect  the 
rights  of  their  members,  within  their  respective  limits, 
from  injuries,  without  force.  The  general  government 
was  intended  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  citizens  of  all 
the  states  from  internal  and  external  force,  and  upon  the 
ocean.  The  people  of  each  state,  in  relation  to  the  state 
government,  are  to  be  considered  in  a  seperate  federal 
or  political  capacity,  as  citizens  of  that  particular  state  of 
which  they  are  members ;  and  in  relation  to  the  general 
government,  they  are  to  be  considered  in  an  aggregate 
or  national  capacity,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
The  rights  and  interest  of  the  people,  in  one  capacity, 
are  not  opposed  to  their  rights  and  interests  in  their  other 
capacity,  but  are  in  perfect  harmony.  What  is  ne 
cessary  for  the  security  of  their  liberties,  in  one  capacity, 
is  necessary  in  the  other.  The  safety  of  the  people,  in 
both  capacities,  depends  on  the  preservation  of  each 
government  within  its  proper  limits.  The  only  opposi- 
14* 


162  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

tion  in  the  case,  is,  between  those  who  wish  to  deprive 
the  states  of  a  portion  of  their  power,  and  those  who 
wish  to  prevent  it ;  between  those  who  wish  to  disturb 
the  present  adjustment  of  powers  between  the  two  gov 
ernments,  and  those  who  are  opposed  to  it ;  between 
those  who  wish  to  transfer  a  part  of  the  power  of  the 
states  to  the  general  government,  and  those  who  wish  to 
retain  it.  The  framers  of  the  general  government  seem 
to  have  anticipated  that  the  possession  of  the  sword  and 
purse  writh  the  patronage  it  must  command,  would  give 
that  government  a  preponderating  influence,  which  might 
become  dangerous  to  the  states;  and  they  endeavored  to 
provide  means  to  counteract  this  tendency  to  enlarge 
ment,  which  they  foresaw,  by  giving  the  states  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  portion  of  the  officers  who  were  to  ad 
minister  it;  by  limiting  its  powers  to  a  few  enumerated 
objects ;  and  by  a  prudent  distribution  of  its  powers. 

The  preservation  of  the  public  liberty  of  this  country 
requires  that  the  boundaries  of  the  two  governments 
should  be  observed.  The  objects  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  and  the  nature  of  its  powers,  are  calculated  to  give 
it  a  preponderating  influence  over  those  of  the  states.  It 
is  our  shield  in  war ;  its  offices  have  more  attractions  for 
talent  and  ambition  than  those  of  the  states,  and  its  pub 
lic  expenditures  embrace  a  wider  range,  and  are  more 
diffusive  in  their  benefits.  The  beneficent  character  of 
the  public  expenditure  facilitates  the  transition  from  le 
gitimate  objects  to  such  as  are  of  a  more  doubtful  char 
acter  ;  it  adds  to  the  means  of  citizens  ;  it  relieves  their 
burthens ;  it  multiplies  their  accommodations ;  it  facili 
tates  their  means  of  intercourse;  it  stimulates  their  in 
dustry  and  enterprise,  and  enhances  the  value  of  their 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  163 

property.  Its  influence  is  seductive  ;  its  benificent  char 
acter  silences  inquiry  ;  paralyzes  resistance,  and  oblite 
rates  the  memory  of  state  rights  and  state  obligations. 
Every  appropriation  for  internal  improvement  is  a  cornu 
copia  to  the  surrounding  country ;  it  is  the  medicated 
cake  of  Jason,  by  the  soporific  influence  of  which  he  elu 
ded  the  vigilance  of  the  watchful  sentinel  that  guarded 
the  golden  fleece.  Roads,  bridges  and  canals  are  the 
subjects  of  internal  improvement.  Their  use  is  to  facil 
itate  intercourse  and  transportation  from  one  place  to 
another.  If  any  subjects,  whatever,  require  municipal 
regulation  more  than  others,  these  are  those  subjects. 
Roads  and  bridges  and  canals  are  altogether  of  a  local 
nature ;  they  require  local  taxation,  local  superinten 
dence,  and  local  protection.  Internal  improvement  was 
not  among  the  purposes  for  which  the  general  govern 
ment  was  instituted,  nor  is  it  the  object  of  any  one  of  its 
enumerated  powers.  If  the  general  government  has  any 
power  over  the  subject,  what  are  its  limits  ?  How  is  it 
to  be  carried  into  effect,  without  interfering  with  the  le 
gislative  and  judicial  authority  of  the  states? 

Then  it  appears  that  Mr.  Macon  upon  this  subject,  was 
always  right,  and  that  the  general  subject  clearly  belong 
to  the  states ;  and  that  the  cases,  if  there  should  be  any, 
in  which  it  may  possibly  become  necessary  to  the  exe 
cution  of  the  enumerated  powers  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  and  a  confirmation  of  it. 

If  we  will  trace  the  history  of  the  present  government 
of  England  to  its  origin,  we  shall  see  there  developed 
also,  this  plan  of  accumulating  power  by  little  and  little, 
to  use  one  of  Mr.  Macon's  phrases ;  but  there  it  was  on 
the  side  of  liberty,  instead  of  monarchy. 


164  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Liberty  was  established  in  England  by  the  Saxons, 
before  the  feudal  system  was  introduced,  by  William  the 
Norman.  The  spirit  of  liberty  and  feudalism  have  been 
in  perpetual  conflict,  from  that  period  to  the  present 
time,  and  every  revolution  in  that  country  has  termina 
ted  in  favor  of  public  liberty.  It  was  the  spirit  of  Saxon 
liberty  which  produced  the  representation  of  the  people 
in  parliament,  and  procured  the  great  charter,  trial  by 
jury,  the  habeas  corpus  act,  a  free  press,  and  all  the  lim 
itations  on  the  royal  prerogative.  The  same  spirit  has 
made  great  inroads  on  the  feudal  system  of  landed  pro 
perty  ;  has  contrived  means  to  unfetter  inheritances,  and 
remove  the  restraints  against  alienations. 

These  innovations  in  the  laws  of  real  property  in  En 
gland,  with  the  immense  accumulation  of  personal  pro 
perty,  created  by  the  exertions  of  an  industrious  people, 
vigorously  employed  in  agriculture,  commerce  and  ma 
nufactures,  countervail,  in  a  great  degree,  the  influence 
of  the  feudal  organization  of  society ;  and  the  power  of 
the  representatives  of  the  people  over  the  public  sup 
plies,  forms  a  balance  to  the  hereditary  principles  of  the 
constitution,  and  renders  the  English  people,  compared 
with  other  countries,  where  the  feudel  system  prevails,  a 
free  people. 

An  equality  of  rank  and  property,  the  virtue  and  in 
telligence  of  the  people,  and  the  freedom  of  their  con 
stitutions,  make  the  United  States  the  freest  nation  on 
earth.  The  first  settlers  brought  with  them  the  free 
principles  of  the  English  constitution.  The  war  of  the 
revolution  was  undertaken  in  defence  of  the  doctrine, 
that  taxation  and  representation  were  inseperable ;  and 
that,  where  there  was  no  representation,  there  could  be 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  165 

no  taxation.  The  constitutions  of  the  several  states  are 
predicated  upon  the  principle,  that  the  will  of  the  ma 
jority  must  rule.  They  recognise  an  equality  of  political 
rights ;  the  freedom  of  opinion  in  religion  ;  the  trial  by 
jury;  the  habeas  corpus  act,  and  a  free  press.  They  im 
prove  the  doctrine  of  representation,  by  apportioning  it 
to  the  number  of  people  in  different  districts ;  and  secure 
the  influence  of  responsibility,  by  periodical  elections  of 
all  public  officers. 

To  prevent  the  possibility  of  danger,  from  the  accu 
mulation  of  property  in  a  few  hands,  the  several  states 
very  early  abolished  entails,  and  provided  for  equal  di 
vision  of  estates  among  all  the  children  in  cases  of  in 
testacy  ;  and  the  courts  of  law,  in  accordance  with  the 
same  principle,  refuse  to  sustain  any  disposition  of  pro 
perty  that  would  lead  to  a  perpetuity. 

The  people  of  the  several  states  framed  the  confede 
ration  to  manage  the  affairs  of  peace  and  war,  and  to  re 
gulate  their  intercourse  with  other  nations.  In  framing 
the  present  constitution  of  the  general  government,  to 
the  powers  of  peace  and  war,  they  added  the  power 
over  commerce  and  taxation,  and  gave  it  a  national  opera 
tion.  They  rely  upon  the  state  governments  for  the  pro 
tection  of  their  rights  against  injuries  without  force,  and 
upon  the  general  government  for  protection  from  exter 
nal  and  internal  violence.  Then  the  security  of  our  li 
berties  depends  on  the  concurrent  operation  of  the  two 
governments  in  their  respective  limits.  The  tendency  of 
things  is  to  give  a  preponderance  to  the  general  govern 
ment.  The  invasion  of  the  powers  of  the  states  by  the 
general  government,  and  the  corruption  of  manners,  are 
the  principal  sources  of  danger  to  the  public  liberty.  An 


166  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

ambitious  spirit  for  national  aggrandisement  and  national 
glory,  leads  to  the  first  evil,  and  faction  to  the  second. 

What  is  the  vital  principal  of  a  republic,  without  which 
it  cannot  exist?  Submission  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
constitutionally  expressed.  This  is  the  vital  principle  of 
a  free  government,  and  as  necessary  to  its  existence  as 
the  heart  of  man  in  the  animal  economy,  to  his  existence. 
This  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  doctrine  of  Mon 
tesquieu,  when  he  alleges  that  virtue  is  the  principle  of 
a  popular  government;  his  meaning  is,  that  no  people 
can  endure  a  free  government,  or -are  capable  of  self 
government,  who  have  not  virtue  and  intelligence  enough 
to  submit  to  the  will  of  a  majority.  History  proves  that 
no  free  people  ever  lost  their  liberties  while  they  were 
able  to  submit  to  the  will  of  a  majority,  or  ever  retained 
them  after  that  period. 

The  want  of  the  prevalence  of  these  principles  is  the 
very  souce  from  which  it  springs,  it  is  the  fountain  head 
of  faction,  and  a  careful  inquiry  would  probably  prove 
that  the  violence  of  faction,  which  has  forever  been  the 
bone  of  free  States,  has  generally  been  in  proportion  to 
the  deficiency  of  the  people  in  these  qualifications.  It 
has  been  called  the  disease  of  republics ;  it  arose  from 
a  diseased  state  of  the  moral  constitution  of  society,  and 
like  all  other  diseases,  tends  to  the  dissolution  of  the 
body  it  affects. 

What  is  its  history  in  all  ages  ?  The  people  are  divid 
ed  in  opinion  between  the  candidates  for  office  ;  the  con 
test  is  settled  by  the  election,  and  acquiescence  becomes 
the  duty  of  the  minority ;  and  this  would  ordinarily  be 
the  case,  were  it  not  for  those  who  keep  alive  divisions, 
in  order  to  make  them  subservient  to  the  purposes  of 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  167 

their  ambition.  The  acquisition  of  power,  however  it 
may  be  disguised,  is  forever  the  ultimate  object  of  fac 
tion.  To  effect  its  purposes,  combinations  are  formed, 
all  the  ignoble  passions  are  enlisted  and  inflamed,  and 
measures  and  motives  are  misrepresented  or  discoloured, 
in  order  to  create  distrust,  and  to  weaken  the  confidence 
of  the  people  in  the  integrity  and  patriotism  of  those  in 
power.  The  publication  of  the  proceedings  of  govern 
ment,  and  a  free  discussion  of  public  measures  in  the 
public  papers  and  in  private  circles,  are  at  all  times  de 
sirable  ;  they  are  necessary  to  keep  the  people  informed 
of  the  state  of  public  affairs,  and  to  enable  them  to  judge 
of  the  character  and  fidelity  of  their  public  agents. 

These  means  of  public  information  differ  as  much  from 
the  operations  of  faction,  contrived  to  control  the  public 
mind,  and  enlist  the  public  passions,  as  wholesome  food 
from  poison.  The  operations  of  faction  have  a  most  per 
nicious  influence  on  the  moral  character  of  society.  By 
a  law  of  our  nature,  all  passive  impressions  impair  our 
moral  sensibility.  Familiarity  with  misery  renders  us 
callous  to  its  impressions;  a  constant  view  of  vice  lessens 
its  deformity,  the  frequent  recital  of  vicious  acts  has  a 
corresponding  effect.  The  constant  calumny  of  the  mo 
tives  of  public  men,  not  only  lessens  the  veneration  for 
them  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  but  by  the  principle  of 
association,  lessens  their  general  estimate  of  character; 
lessens  their  own  self-respect,  and  thus  removes  one  of 
the  strongest  guards  of  virtue,  and  lowers  the  standard  of 
the  public  morals. 

It  is  this  trait  in  the  moral  constitution  of  man  that 
gives  to  education  its  power  in  forming  the  moral  char 
acter  of  youth ;  and  an  intelligent  writer  contends  that, 


168  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

by  a  wise  improvement  of  this  faculty,  it  is  in  the  power 
of  the  public  rulers  of  a  state  to  improve  the  moral  char 
acter  of  the  nation;  that  the  public  policy  may  be  so 
modified,  in  relation  to  our  moral  feelings,  as  to  render  a 
people  humane  or  cruel,  brave  or  timid,  high-minded  or 
mean-spirited,  virtuous  or  vicious. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  influence  of  an  or 
ganized  faction,  for  a  given  period,  would  be  more  inju 
rious  to  the  moral  character  of  the  nation,  than  a  war  of 
the  same  duration.  War  often  brings  great  virtues  into 
exercise,  to  compensate  for  the  evils  it  inflicts.  The  ob 
ject,  the  means,  and  the  effects  of  faction,  are  alike  de 
void  of  any  honorable  trait  of  distinction. 

Faction  is  at  war  with  the  vital  principle  of  freedom. 
It  destroys  independence  of  sentiment,  and  the  freedom 
of  election ;  it  subjects  the  understanding  of  the  people 
to  the  influence  of  their  passions ;  its  tendency  is  to  ren 
der  them  venal,  to  accustom  them  to  leaders,  and  to  pre 
pare  them  for  a  master.  It  accelerates  the  corruption  of 
manners,  leads  to  civil  broils,  to  political  changes  and  re 
volutions  ;  and  in  its  progress,  tends  as  directly  to  des 
potism  as  gravity  to  the  centre. 

A  recurrence  to  the  history  of  faction  in  Athens  and 
Rome,  will  furnish  a  proof  of  the  correctness  of  this 
representation.  The  Greeks  enjoyed  an  equality  of  rank 
and  property,  and,  in  the  early  period  of  their  history, 
were  virtuous  and  intelligent ;  but  they  were  ignorant  of 
the  advantages  of  a  representative  government,  and  their 
constitutions  were  extremely  defective  in  their  organiza 
tion.  The  contest  between  those  among  whom  the  diffe 
rent  powers  of  government  were  allotted,  generated  fac 
tions.  These  made  the  people  venal  and  licentious,  and 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  169 

rendered  them  incapable  of  self-government,  and  the 
admission  of  Philip  of  Macedon  to  a  seat  in  the  amphio 
tyonic  council,  put  a  period  to  their  independence. 

The  Romans  were  divided  into  ranks.  The  people  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  republic,  were  virtuous,  but  the 
government  was  badly  organized.  Although  the  people 
had  a  share  in  the  choice  of  their  magistrates  and  public 
officers,  and  in  making  their  laws,  yet  they  never  under 
stood  the  true  principles  of  representation,  nor  did  they  ap 
ply  them  to  the  case  of  legislation .  After  the  expulsion  of 
the  kings,  the  principal  power  was  lodged  in  the  senate, 
which  was  composed  of  the  patricians,  and  became  an  iron- 
handed  aristocracy.  The  rigorous  measures  of  that  body 
forced  the  people  to  retire  from  the  city  to  the  sacred 
mount,  and  the  establishment  of  the  tribunitial  authority 
was  the  condition  of  their  return.  The  tribunes  had  a  neg 
ative  upon  the  acts  of  the  senate  ;  the  boundary  between 
the  powers  of  the  two  bodies  was  indefinite,  and  the  con 
test  between  them  for  power  generated  factions,  and 
corrupted  the  people.  The  armies,  by  being  suffered  to 
plunder  the  provinces,  became  licentious,  and  the  repub 
lic  became  the  spoil  of  ambition,  and  a  victim  of  fac 
tion.  Ceasar  did  not  aspire  for  the  empire  until  the 
people  of  Rome  had  become  incapable  of  self-govern 
ment,  and  were  prepared  for  a  master.  In  England, 
when  the  will  of  the  people  has,  through  the  represen 
tative  principle,  been  employed  as  the  governing  force, 
it  has,  though  incumbered  with  rotton  boroughs  and 
with  royalty,  achieved  wonders.  It  has  secured  to  the 
people  as  much  happiness  and  liberty,  as  were  compati 
ble  with  their  condition  and  form  of  government. 


15 


170  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

In  Rome,  in  Greece,  and  wherever  else  the  people 
have  been  free,  they  have  been  happy  and  powerful 
while  their  freedom  continued.  But  in  those  places,  and 
wherever  else,  in  all  time  past,  freedom  has  been  found? 
it  has  been  found,  in  the  possession  of  a  people  occupy- 
ing  a  comparatively  small  territory. 

While,  therefore,  the  states  can  maintain  the  free  and 
unfettered  exercise  of  their  own  will,  in  the  manage 
ment  of  their  own  interior  concerns, — while  the  federal 
government  will  be  content  to  exercise  the  powers  con 
ceded  to  it  by  the  states,  in  the  constitution  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  and  leave  to  the  states,  respectively,  the  ex 
ercise  of  their  will  as  sovereigns  in  the  regulation  of 
their  internal  policy,  the  people  of  the  states  will  be  free 
and  happy ;  and  the  states  will  be  strong  in  the  vindica 
tion  of  the  rights  of  the  union,  in  proportion  to  the  free 
dom  and  happiness  of  their  citizens.  Their  strength 
upon  an  emergency,  will  be  the  strength  of  giants  re 
freshed  by  sleep.  And  permit  us  here,  to  ask,  if  it  is  not 
more  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  our  complex  gov 
ernment,  that  the  union  should  depend  upon  the  states 
for  its  vigor,  than  that  the  states  should  look  to  the  union 
for  their  strength?  Does  not  the  theory  of  our  govern 
ment  enjoin  that  we  should  look  rather  to  the  good  of 
the  whole  by  taking  special  care  of  the  parts,  than  that 
we  should  look  to  the  good  of  the  parts,  by  taking  spe 
cial  care  of  the  whole.  Can  we  hesitate  upon  this  ques 
tion,  when  we  consider  that  the  liberty  and  prosperity 
of  every  citizen  is  in  the  exclusive  keeping  of  his  state, 
and  not  of  the  Union?  That  the  citizens  owe  their 
happiness  to  their  respective  states,  and  derive  their  liber 
ty  from  them.  That  it  is  in  the  states  that  patriotism,  to 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  171 

whatever  extent  it  may  exist,  must  be  found  ?  It  is  in 
the  states,  and  under  their  protection  alone,  that  the  fami 
ly  altars  are  reared,  and  the  family  firesides  consecrated 
by  family  endearments ;  and  that  it  is  under  the  protec 
ting  toleration  of  the  states  that  temples  are  erected  to 
the  living  God,  and  public  and  social  devotion  conduc 
ted. 

In  all  free  governments,  there  always  have  been,  and 
there  always  will  be,  some  under  the  cover  of  patriotism, 
forming  schemes  for  overturning  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  and  establishing  themselves  in  arbitrary  power. 
Such  men  are  generally  at  first  the  idols  of  the  people, 
and  before  their  latent  designs  come  to  be  discovered, 
they  prevail  with  the  people  to  enter  into  such  measures, 
or  to  make  such  regulations,  as  may  contribute  to  the 
success  of  their  schemes.  But,  if  the  people  of  the 
states  will  be  wise  enough,  and  sufficiently  jealous  of 
their  liberties,  they  will  never  fail  to  discover  these  de 
signs  upon  our  government  before  they  are  ripe  for  exe 
cution.  And  in  case  a  Ceasar  should  ever  obtain  the 
executive  chair,  and  should  attempt  to  remove  the  ob 
structions  which  the  states  government  would  interpose 
to  his  ambition,  the  states,  by  the  bare  refusal  to  act, 
may,  within  four  years,  arrest  his  course,  and  reduce  him 
to  a  private  station. 


172  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

WE  have  before  mentioned  that  Mr.  Macon  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States'  congress  in 
November,  1828, — induced  from  a  sense  of  duty  spring 
ing  out  of  his  advanced  age  and  infirmities. 

Soon  after  this  he  returned  to  his  residence  on  Ronoake, 
where  absolved  from. all  the  troubles  attendant  on  public 
life,  he  remained,  until  1835;  when  his  fellow  citizens 
again  called  him  from  his  cherished  retirement,  by  elect 
ing  him  a  member  of  the  convention  charged  with  the 
important  duty  of  revising  and  reforming  the  constitution 
of  his  native  state.  Mr.  Macon  was  at  this  time  about 
seventy-five  years  of  age;  and  when  this  convention  as 
sembled,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  on  the  4th  of  June, 
he  was  appointed  president,  unanimously;  and  being  con 
ducted  to  the  chair,  briefly  addressed  the  meeting  in 
terms  as  follows : 

"My  friends  and  countrymen  : 

"My  powers  are  weak,  and  I  fear  I  shall  not  be  able 
to  fulfil  the  arduous  duties  of  presiding  over  this  impor 
tant  deliberative  body,  either  satisfactorily  to  myself  or 
acceptably  to  you.  It  being  some  time  since  I  retired 
from  public  life,  I  am  sensible  that  I  shall  be  found  rusty 
in  the  rules  of  the  proceedings ;  and  will  therefore  in  ad 
vance,  invite  correction  from  my  friends  in  the  conven- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  173 

tion,  which  I  shall  always  thankfully  receive.  I  would 
respectfully,  though  earnestly  press  upon  the  attention  of 
every  member  of  the  convention,  the  necessity  of  mu 
tual  forbearance  and  good  temper  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  business  committed  to  this  body  by  our  constituents, 
who  have  selected  us  to  act  not  only  on  their  behalf,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  posterity ;  and  I  pray  that  each  of  us, 
with  an  eye  single  to  the  welfare  of  our  common  coun 
try,  may  cordially  unite  in  such  measures  as  will  redound 
to  the  glory  and  happiness  of  North  Carolina." 

As  is  customary  in  the  proceedings  of  deliberative  bo 
dies,  a  committee  was  appointed  by  the  convention,  on 
the  8th  of  June,  to  consider  and  report  the  manner  in 
which  it  would  be  expedient  to  take  up  the  business  of  the 
convention.  The  plan  of  operation  was  drawn  up  and 
presented  by  Mr.  Gaston,  which  amounted  to  nineteen  re 
solutions.  The  third  resolution  being  under  consideration 
on  the  10th;  it  being  whether  to  abolish  borough  repre 
sentation  in  whole  or  in  part,  some  member  moved  to  strike 
out  the  whole  of  the  resolution  after  the  word  resolved,  and 
insert,  it  is  expedient  to  abolish  borough  representation  en 
tirely.  The  question  being  called  for  on  this  amend 
ment,  the  debate  was  carried  on  to  some  length  by  sun 
dry  gentlemen,  when  some  gentleman  moved  to  accept 
the  towns  of  Newbern,  Wilmington  and  Fayetteville, 
from  the  above  motion.  Another  gentleman  moved  to 
strike  out  Fayetteville,  and  add  Edenton  to  the  amend 
ment  proposed.  The  president  immediately  declared 
the  motion  out  of  order.  Upon  which  a  debate  was  car 
ried  on  by  several  gentlemen  upon  the  second  motion 
excepting  the  above  towns,  when  a  gentleman  from  Bun 
combe  appeared  to  take  enlarged  views  of  the  subject ; 
15* 


174  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

remarking  "that  the  basis  of  representation  which  he  de 
sired  to  see  established,  was  that,  and  that  only,  which 
would  secure  the  largest  share  of  intelligence  and  liber 
ality  to  the  legislative  councils  in  the  state — recurring  to 
the  catalogue  of  the  illustrious  dead  and  the  illustrious 
living,  that  have,  throughout  the  whole  period  of  our  po 
litical  existence,  constituted  the  borough  representation  ; 
and  if  they  would  reflect  upon  this,  they  would  find,  said 
he,  little  reason  to  disfranchise  them." 

To  which  remarks,  it  appears  from  the  register  of  de 
bates,  that  Mr.  Macon  answered  :  "He  should  go  hand 
in  hand  with  the  gentleman  from  Buncombe,  as  regarded 
education,  but  he  differed  with  him  in  his  notions  about 
internal  improvement.  He  doubted  the  capacity  of  North 
Carolina  to  become  a  great  commercial  state.  She  had 
no  good  port,  and  the  lower  part  of  it  was  sickly.  For 
the  same  reasons,  New  Orleans  never  could  rival  New 
York.  But  we  could  diffuse  the  blessing  of  education, 
and  become  a  virtuous,  if  not  a  great  people.  He  ex 
pressed  a  wish  that  the  university  of  the  state  was  loca 
ted  at  Raleigh,  for  he  did  not  believe  in  that  kind  of  edu 
cation  that  was  obtained  in  cloisters.  The  manners  of 
boys  should  be  attended  to  as  well  as  their  minds.  He  re 
ferred  to  the  city  of  Williamsburg  in  Virginia,  which  was 
said  to  have  been  the  most  polished  in  America,  and 
whose  college  had  turned  out  more  celebrated  men  than 
any  other  institution  within  his  knowledge.  He  was  op 
posed,  he  said,  to  the  amendment.  If  the  people  had  not 
virtue  to  select  their  most  talented  men,  this  provision 
would  not  insure  it.  Before  the  revolution,  our  legisla 
tive  halls  were  graced  with  distinguished  men,  as  well 
from  counties  as  from  towns.  He  instanced  governor 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  175 

Caswell,  from  the  small  county  of  Lenoir;  who,  he  said, 
was  certainly  one  of  the  most  powerful  men  that  ever 
lived  in  this  or  any  other  country." 

The  next  resolution  on  which  Mr.  Macon  made  any 
remarks,  was  resolution  fourth,  relating  to  the  abrogation 
or  restriction  of  the  righf  of  free  negroes  or  mulattoes  to 
vote  for  members  of  the  house  of  commons ; — resolving, 
that  to  entitle  any  free  person  of  color  to  vote  for  mem 
bers  in  the  house  of  commons,  he  shall  be  possessed  of 
a  freehold  estate  of  the  value  of  $250,  free  from  all  in- 
cumbrances.  This  resolution  was  debated  at  considera 
ble  length,  by  gentlemen  of  talents,  when  Mr.  Macon 
rose,  and  said,  "Perhaps  he  went  further  in  his  opinions 
in  relation  to  this  subject  than  other  gentlemen.  He 
would  say,  that  free  persons  of  color  never  were  consi 
dered  as  citizens,  and  no  one  had  a  right  to  vote  but  a 
citizen.  The  revolution  in  this  country  was  made  by 
British  subjects.  The  crown  cannot  make  subjects;  it 
makes  what  are  called  denizens.  No  one  can  say  that  a 
colored  man  was  ever  naturalized,  or  called  upon  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  They  have  been  employed  to 
fight,  but  were  never  made  citizens.  They  made  no  part 
of  the  political  family  ;  the  negroes  were  originally  im 
ported  in  the  way  of  trade,  like  other  merchandise. 

"  Mr.  Macon  said,  as  he  did  not  approve  of  the  land 
qualification  for  voters.  Suppose  two  respectable  neigh 
bors  had  each  a  son ;  that  one  of  them  had  fifty  acres  of 
land,  perhaps  not  worth  more  than  twenty-five  cents  an 
acre,  and  the  other  had  no  land,  but  was  a  good  black 
smith  or  shoemaker,  and  his  standing  in  society  irre 
proachable  ;  why  will  you  allow  one  to  vote,  and  not  the 
other  ?  If  any  qualification  is  necessary  he  would  pre- 


176  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

fer  age  ;  it  is  age  that  makes  the  man.  He  would  rather 
take  age  than  property.  He  know  respectable  families 
of  free  negroes  who  had  no  property ;  but  he  believed 
that  none  of  them  had  any  right  to  vote." 

"  The  opinion  of  New  York  had  been  mentioned,  said 
he ;  if  the  clause  which  had  been  referred  to,  were  to  be 
again  considered  in  that  state,  it  would  now  be  rejected. 
We  are  in  a  very  different  situation  from  that — they  have 
but  few  persons  of  this  description — we  have  large  num 
bers.  What,  said  he,  can  we  do  with  these  people  ? 
T.hey  are  amongst  us — we  have  no  Moses  to  undertake 
their  cause.  He  supposed  they  must  remain  with  us. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  our  southern  country  can  ever  be 
cultivated  by  white  men,  or  that  the  vast  quantity  of  our 
swamp  lands  can  ever  be  drained,  or  other  internal  im 
provements  be  made  without  them.  It  is  proper  that 
these  colored  people,  whether  free  or  in  bondage,  should 
be  well  treated ;  but  he  was  opposed  to  any  of  them  be 
ing  allowed  the  right  of  suffrage." 

On  Monday,  June  15th,  in  the  register  of  debates,  we 
find  the  next  remarks  of  Mr.  Macon.  When  the  con 
vention  resolved  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole, 
Mr.  Shober  in  the  chair,  on  the  resolutions  reported  by 
the  general  committee,  in  relation  to  the  number  of  mem 
bers  to  compose  each  house.  During  the  debate  upon 
these  resolutions,  some  member  moved  and  supported 
his  motion  "to  reduce  the  senate  from  50  to  34 — if  48 
was  sufficiently  large  for  the  senate  of  the  United  States, 
he  thought  34  would  do  very  well  for  the  senate  of  North 
Carolina."  The  question  was  put  on  the  motion  to  strike 
out  from  the  resolution,  fixing  the  number  of  which  the 
senate  was  proposed  to  consist,  the  word  fifty,  and  nega* 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  177 

lived,  without  a  division.  The  question  then  came  be 
fore  the  committee  for  striking  out  the  words  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  from  the  resolution  prescribing"  the  num 
ber  of  the  house  of  commons. 

Upon  this  question,  Mr.  Macon  rose  and  delivered  his 
sentiments  pretty  much  at  large  on  the  subject ;  but  from 
his  distance  from  the  reporter,  and  owing  to  the  low  tone 
of  his  voice  in  which  he  spoke,  he  was  very  imperfectly 
heard.  In  referring  to  the  compromise,  which  it  is  un 
derstood  was  made  by  members  from  the  eastern  and 
western  parts  of  the  state,  at  the  session  of  the  legisla 
ture,  which  passed  the  act  calling  the  convention,  "he 
expressed  his  disapprobation  of  all  compromises  and 
concealments.  He  disapproved  of  any  plan  of  inter 
nal  improvement  in  which  government  was  to  take 
any  part.  All  improvements  of  this  kind,  he  said,  ought 
to  be  the  work  of  individuals,  as  they  could  always  have 
it  done  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  the  government.  In  noti 
cing  a  remark  which  had  fallen  from  some  member,  de 
rogatory  to  the  character  of  this  state,  he  said,  for  his  part, 
he  had  never  seen  a  state  in  which  he  had  rather  live 
than  in  North  Carolina ;  nor  any,  where  the  people  were 
in  general  more  happy.  There  might  not  be  so  many 
two  and  four  horse  carriages  amongst  them,  but  there 
were  plenty  of  good  horses.  Nor  so  many  splendid 
houses ;  but  the  people  generally  had  comfortable  dwel 
lings  and  good  plantations.  The  term  farmer,  he  said, 
was  seldom  heard  in  North  Carolina,  and  he  was  glad  of 
it,  as  it  always  indicated  to  him  a  state  of  tenantry ;  he 
preferred  the  term  planter,  which  conveyed  to  his  mind 
more  of  independency  and  plenty."  Mr.  Macon  did  not 
approve  of  the  proposed  plan  of  amending  the  constitu- 


ITS  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tion,  and  read  a  resolution  which  he  said  he  wrote  at 
home,  on  the  subject,  but  in  so  low  a  tone  that  the  re 
porter  could  not  distinctly  hear  it.  We  believe  it  pro 
posed  to  refer  the  whole  subject  to  committees,  to  be  ap 
pointed  in  each  county,  by  the  next  general  assembly. 
We  presume  he  was  opposed  to  biennial  sessions  of  the 
legislature,  as  he  quoted  the  following  maxim  from  Mr. 
Jefferson,  "where  annual  elections  end,  tyranny  be 
gins."  In  the  course  of  his  remards,  Mr.  Macon  observ 
ed,  that  he  believed  all  changes  of  government  were 
from  better  to  worse. 

On  Saturday,  June  20th,  we  find  others  of  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  remarks;  on  a  resolution  introduced  by  Mr.  Dan 
iel,  (the  convention  being  in  a  committee  of  the  whole) 
"That  it  is  expedient  that  their  be  annual  sessions  of 
the  general  assembly."  After  several  speeches  had  been 
made  by  different  gentlemen,  some  for  and  others  against 
this  resolution, 

Mr.  Macon  rose  and  said,  "Democracy  was  dead  in 
North  Carolina.  He  understood  a  Democracy  to  be  a 
government  of  the  people.  Public  opinion  runs  in  that 
current.  It  runs  from  the  principles  of  the  revolution. 
He  did  not  believe  that  there  was  one  of  the  thirteen 
original  states  in  the  legislature,  that  did  not  meet  annu 
ally.  That  his  memory  was  gone,  the  gentleman  from 
Craven,  Mr.  Gaston,  had  convinced  him  by  the  statement 
of  certain  facts,  whose  existence  he  had  forgotten.  If 
you  can  put  off  the  meeting  of  the  legislature  for  two 
years,  you  may  extend  the  time  to  four,  six,  or  ten  years. 
Mr.  Jefferson  said,  he  preferred  the  tempest  of  liberty  to 
the  calm  of  despotism.  On  the  subject  of  long  sessions, 
every  one  knew  his  opinion.  But  if  you  say  the  legis- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  179 

lature  shall  not  pass  private  laws,  you  destroy  the  right 
of  petition.  He  had  listened  to  the  gentleman  from 
Craven,  on  his  theory  of  government,  and  had  expected 
him  to  come  out  on  the  other  side,  but  was  disappointed. 
He  seemed  to  have  some  doubts  which  side  he  should 
take.  Complaint  is  frequently  made  that  many  of  the 
difficulties  arise  from  our  not  being  better  acquainted 
with  each  other.  The  best  opportunity  afforded  for  for 
ming  this  acquaintance,  is  the  annual  meetings  of  the 
legislature.  As  to  the  expense  of  the  civil  list,  he  never 
considered  that  as  any  thing.  It  was  jobs  that  swallow 
ed  the  public  money.  It  was  complained  that  legislators 
debate  too  much.  He  believed  no  man  spoke  on  any 
subject  who  did  not  tell  you  something  you  did  not  know 
before.  This  he  said,  is  a  talking  government.  The 
gentleman  from  Iredell  had  complained  of  quarrels  and 
suits  growing  out  of  annual  elections.  He  had  never 
found  this  a  greviance  in  his  part  of  the  state.  When 
he  first  went  to  the  general  assembly,  that  man  was 
counted  the  best  speaker  who  said  the  most  in  the  few 
est  words.  This  merit  was  now  lost  sight  of.  The  most 
thrifty  planters  would  not  employ  overseers  for  too  long 
a  time;  and  he  thought  the  conduct  of  the  legislature 
should  be  passed  upon  annually.  If  they  had  done  well, 
they  should  be  re-elected.  He  thought  an  annual  elec 
tion  was  as  good  a  tenure  as  any  other.  He  did  not 
believe  that  men  were  either  as  good  or  as  bad  as  they 
are  generally  represented.  He  knew  most  of  the  men 
that  formed  the  constitution  at  Halifax  in  1776,  and  they 
would  have  been  an  ornament  to  any  age.  They  had  a 
different  task  to  perform.  They  were  not  only  surroun 
ded  by  a  foreign  foe,  but  they  had  a  domestic  enemy  to 


180  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

contend  with,  which  composed  about  one  third  of  the 
whole  population.  These  patriots  formed  this  venerated 
constitution,  and  we  ought  to  approach  it  with  awe.  It 
was  the  great  work  of  our  fathers ;  but  we  are  about  to 
treat  it  as  many  of  the  thoughtless  young  are  about  to 
treat  their  parental  estates.  It  is  perhaps  the  nature  of 
man  to  cling  to  long  established  opinions, — gentlemen 
seem  yet  to  cling  to  British  notions.  The  parliament  of 
Britian  has  much  power;  the  sword  has  also  great  pow 
er.  Their  magna  charta  has  been  called  a  grant  of  pow 
er, — but  he  denied  that  part — it  was  power  won  by  the 
sword.  There  are  different  ties  in  all  governments. 
What  power  will  you  trust?  He  thought  the  best  part 
of  government,  is  the  legislature.  He  hoped  this  conven 
tion  would  not  feel  force  and  forget  right.  He  had 
hoped,  that  after  amending  the  constitution,  every  mem 
ber  would  have  gone  home  satisfied,  and  recommended 
its  adoption  to  the  people ;  but  he  began  to  despair  of 
doing  so." 

On  Monday,  June  the  22d,  after  some  preliminaries, 
some  member  moved  the  following  resolution.  "That 
it  is  expedient  so  to  amend  the  constitution  of  this  state, 
that  in  all  elections  of  officers,  the  members  of  the  gen 
eral  assembly  vote  viva  voce." 

Upon  which  Mr.  Macon  made  the  following  remarks: 
"He  said,  there  was  but  little  difference  between  voting 
by  ballot  and  viva  voce.  He  preferred  the  latter.  He 
thought  men  were  better  than  they  are  generally  repre 
sented.  If  a  man  had  the  misfortune  to  have  his  house 
burnt,  you  will  always  find  his  neighbours  ready  to  help 
him  to  re-build  it.  And  he  did  not  think  our  government 
was  so  vicious  as  it  is  represented,  or  we  should  not  have 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  181 

kept  it  so  long.  If  all  were  honest,  we  should  want  no 
government.  Living  under  a  good  constitution,  he  felt 
unwilling  to  change  it,  but  when  the  people  determined 
to  change,  the  change  must  be  made.  With  respect  to 
voting,  he  thought  no  man  should  be  unwilling  to  tell 
how  he  voted,  on  any  occasion.  Voting  by  ballot,  a 
man  might  call  on  a  neighbour  to  vouch  for  him ;  but  he 
would  appeal  to  the  gentleman  from  Craven,  if  the  re 
cord  was  not  the  best  evidence.  He  therefore  was  in  fa 
vour  of  voting  viva  voce.  He  believed  the  vote  by  bal 
lot  was  introduced,  when  voters  were  kept  from  voting 
publicly  for  fear  of  the  merchants'  books,  for  they  were 
in  debt.  But  we  had  nothing  to  fear  on  that  ground. 
And  as  to  a  difference  of  opinion  on  politics,  destroying 
long  existing  friendships,  he  did  not  believe  it.  He  had 
differed  in  opinion  with  some  of  his  best  friends,  and  it 
made  no  breach  in  their  friendship.  Every  agent  should 
be  responsible  to  his  principal ;  and  he  thought  the  best 
evidences  in  such  cases  was  the  record." 

Concerning  modes  of  election,  in  support  of  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  opinion,  we  believe  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  con 
ceive  of  a  political  institution  that  includes  a  more  direct 
and  implicit  patronage  of  vice,  than  that  which  carries 
on  its  elections  by  ballot.  It  has  been  said,  "  that  ballot 
may  in  certain  cases  be  necessary  to  enable  a  man  of  a 
feeble  character  to  act  with  ease  and  independence,  and 
to  prevent  bribery,  corrupt  influence  and  faction."  Vice 
is  an  ill  remedy  to  apply  to  the  diminution  of  vice.  A 
feeble  and  irresolute  character  might  before  be  acciden 
tal;  ballot  is  a  contrivance  to  render  it  permanent,  and 
to  scatter  its  seeds  over  a  wider  surface.  The  true  cure 
for  a  want  of  constancy  and  public  spirit,  is  to  inspire 
16 


182  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

firmness,  not  to  inspire  timidity.  Truth,  if  communica 
ted  to  the  mind  with  perspicuity,  is  a  sufficient  basis  for 
virtue.  To  tell  men  that  it  is  necessary  they  should 
form  their  decisions  by  ballot,  is  to  tell  them  that  it  is- 
necessary  they  should  be  vicious.  Ballot  teaches  us  to 
draw  a  veil  of  concealment  over  the  performance  of  our 
duty.  It  points  to  us  a  method  of  acting  unobserved. 
It  incites  us  to  make  a  mystery  of  our  sentiments.  If 
it  did  this  in  the  most  trivial  article,  it  would  not  be  easy 
to  bring  the  mischief  it  would  produce  within  the  limits 
of  calculation.  But  it  dictates  this  conduct  in  our  most 
important  concerns.  It  calls  upon  us  to  discharge  our 
duty  to  the  public,  with  the  most  virtuous  constancy ; 
but  at  the  same  time  directs  us  to  hide  our  discharge  of 
it.  One  of  the  most  admirable  principles  in  the  struc 
ture  of  the  material  universe,  is  its  tendency  to  prevent 
us  from  withdrawing  ourselves  from  the  consequences  of 
our  own  actions.  Political  institutions  that  should  at 
tempt  to  counteract  this  principle,  would  be  only  true 
impiety.  How  can  a  man  have  the  love  of  the  public 
in  his  heart,  without  the  dictates  of  that  love,  flowing  to 
his  lips  ?  When  we  direct  men  to  act  with  secrecy,  we 
direct  them  to  act  with  frigidity.  Virtue  will  always  be 
an  unusual  spectacle  among  men,  till  they  shall  have 
learned  to  be  at  all  times  ready  to  avow  their  actions  and 
assign  the  reasons  upon  which  they  are  founded. 

If,  then,  voting  by  ballot  be  an  institution  pregnant 
with  vice,  it  follows,  that  all  social  decisions  should  be 
made  by  open  vote ;  that  wherever  we  have  a  function 
to  discharge,  we  should  reflect  on  the  mode  in  which  it 
ought  to  be  discharged ;  and  that  whatever  conduct  we 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  183 

are  persuaded  to  adopt,  especially  in  affairs  of  general 
concern,  should  be  adopted  in  the  face  of  the  world. 

On  Friday,  June  26th,  Mr.  Edwards  of  Warren,  moved 
that  the  convention  go  into  a  committee  of  the  whole, 
on  the  resolution  in  relation  to  the  3*2d  article  of  the 
constitution;  which  "prohibited  all  but  those  of  the  Pro 
testant  religion,  from  serving  as  members  of  the  legisla 
ture."  This  article  in  the  old  constitution  of  North  Caro 
lina,  created  more  excitement  than  had  been  before  in 
the  convention,  or  was  likely  to  be  during  its  sitting; 
and  to  say  the  truth,  it  was  a  singular  article  in  the  con 
stitution  of  any  republic.  Truth  is  the  only  fair  antago 
nist  of  error;  and  the  latter  "may  be  safely  tolerated, 
while  the  former  is  left  free  to  combat  it."  This  article 
in  their  constitution,  proclaimed  that  a  particular  faith 
should  be  the  price  of  office — that  all  who  did  not  con 
form  to  it  should  be  punished  by  an  exclusion  from  the 
honors,  emoluments  and  distinctions,  which  the  humblest 
should  be  permitted  to  aspire.  The  province  of  political 
assemblages  have  always  been  thought  by  the  wise,  was 
to  regulate  the  intercourse  between  man  and  man, — and 
not  between  man  and  his  maker.  But  it  appears  that 
the  framers  of  this  constitution,  forgetting  this  sublime 
truth,  introduced  into  our  organic  law,  interdictions  on 
account  of  religious  opinions, — and  such  interdictions 
being  introduced,  what  is  more  natural  than  to  suppose, 
they  should,  be  fenced  round  in  order  to  prevent  them 
from  violation,  that  obedience  should  be  coerced  by  pains 
and  penalties, — and  consequently  a  resort  then  must  be 
had  to  legislative  enactments ;  and  they  in  time,  may 
render  ecclesiastical  or  spiritual  courts  indispensible ; 
for  who  can  be  so  well  qualified  to  sit  in  judgment,  as 


184  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

those  who  teach  the  favoured  faith.  Much  debate  took 
place  in  the  convention  upon  this  article,  by  some  of 
the  ablest  men  in  the  state, — and  it  was  not  before  the 
second  day  of  the  debate,  June  27th,  that  Mr.  Macon 
rose  for  the  purpose  of  giving  his  opinion  upon  this  sub 
ject.  Much  attention  was  paid  to  him  as  he  took  his 
attitude  to  make  his  remarks. 

Mr.  Macon  said:  "That  he  should  take  the  broad 
ground  that  man  was  alone  responsible  to  his  creator  for 
his  religious  faith,  and  that  no  human  power  had  any 
right  to  interpose  in  the  matter  or  to  prescribe  any  par 
ticular  opinions  as  a  test  of  fitness  for  office.  If  a  Hin 
doo  was  to  come  amongst  us,  said  he,  and  was  fully  quali 
fied  to  discharge  the  duties  of  any  office  to  which  he 
might  aspire,  his  religious  belief  would  not  constitute  an 
objection,  in  his  opinion,  why  he  should  be  debarred. 
Who  made  man  a  judge,  that  he  should  presume  to  in 
terfere  in  the  sacred  rights  of  conscience  ?  He  had  al 
ways  thought  that  a  mixture  of  politics  and  religion  was 
the  very  essence  of  hypocrisy.  Mr.  Macon  said,  some 
gentlemen  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  this  article,  as 
it  now  stood,  could  do  no  harm.  Who  can  tell  to  what 
the  spirit  of  proscription,  on  which  it  is  based,  may  lead. 
A  spark  may  fire  the  world.  Events  push  each  other 
along,  and  one  passion  but  serves  to  enkindle  another. 
So  far  as  he  was  individually  concerned,  it  mattered  not 
what  provisions  were  incorporated  in  the  constitution. 
His  time  had  most  come.  But  this  article  was  the  only 
feature  in  the  old  constitution  which  he  had  ever  heard 
objected  to,  out  of  the  state ;  and  the  objection  was  coup 
led  with  an  expression  of  surprise  that  it  could  have  got 
foot-hold  in  a  state  where  the  principles  of  liberty  was 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  185 

so  well  understood.  These  were  times,  when  a  man,  if 
a  true  patriot,  must  stake  himself  for  the  good  of  his 
country.  The  present  was  a  crisis  of  that  kind.  When 
our  country  was  in  distress,  said  Mr.  Macon  in  our  revo 
lutionary  struggle,  we  applied  to  Catholics  for  assistance, 
and  it  was  generously  extended.  Without  foreign  assis 
tance,  we  never  should  have  acheived  our  independence. 
Mr.  Macon  said,  a  part  of  the  article  referred  to  Atheists. 
He  did  not  believe  there  ever  was  an  Atheist,  whatever 
his  nation  or  color,  It  was  impossible  for  any  man  to 
look  at  himself, — at  the  water, — at  the  animal  and  veg 
etable  kingdom, — at  the  sun, — moon  or  stars,  without  ac 
knowledging  the  existence  of  a  great  first  cause." 

"  What  gave  rise  to  the  first  settlement  in  North  Caro 
lina?  The  persecutions  in  New  England  and  Virginia. 
New  England,  to  use  the  language  of  a  great  man,  was 
settled  by  Puritans  of  the  Puritans — Virginia  was  settled 
by  Episcopalians.  These  two  states  never  had  any  in 
tercourse  until  the  revolution.  This  goodly  land,  we 
inhabit,  was  discovered  by  Catholics.  Should  not  this 
occur  to  us,  when  we  talk  about  disfranchising  them." 

"To  him,  it  appeared  too  plain  a  question  to  argue, 
that  every  man  may  worship  God  according  to  the  dic 
tates  of  his  own  conscience.  But  it  is  a  practical  denial 
of  its  truth,  to  debar  a  man  from  office,  because  he  may 
entertain  certain  religious  opinions.  There  was  one  mem 
ber  of  this  convention,  whose  father  had  been  inhuman 
ly  murdered  by  the  tories  in  our  revolutionary  struggle; 
he  begged  pardon  for  the  allusion,  but  it  was  history ; 
and  shall  it  be  said,  his  son,  baptised,  as  it  were,  in  the 
blood  of  his  father,  is  unworthy  to  be  in  the  legislature 
of  our  country  ?  No  sir,  no  gentleman  would  say  this. 
16* 


186  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

The  Christian  religion  was  founded  on  good  will  and 
peace  to  man.  Examine  the  redeemer's  sermon  on  the 
mount.  Is  there  any  persecution  there  ?  And  who  made 
us  greater  than  he,  that  we  should  proscribe  our  brethe- 
ren  for  opinion's  sake  ?  You  might  as  well  attempt  to 
bind  the  air  we  breathe,  as  a  man's  conscience.  It  is 
free — liberty  of  thought  is  his  unalienable  birth-right. 
He  never  heard  this  great  outcry  against  religious  free 
dom,  but  what  he  was  forcibly  reminded  of  the  Pharisee 
and  Publican.  He  said  he  was  too  tired  to  repeat  it ; 
but  every  body  remembered  it." 

"  Roger  Williams,  of  Rhode  Island,  Mr.  Macon  said, 
was  the  first  man  to  establish  toleration  in  North  Ameri 
ca — he  was  a  puritan.  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrolton,  the 
man  who  staked  more  by  signing  the  declaration  of  inde 
pendence  than  any  other  individual,  was  a  Catholic. 
As  he  stepped  up  to  sign,  some  person  remarked,  "  There 
goes  two  millions  with  a  dash  of  a  pen."  Another  freind 
remarked,  "Oh,  Carroll,  you  will  get  off,  there  are  so 
many  Charles  Carrolls."  He  stepped  back  and  added 
"of  Carrollton."  Mr.  Macon  alluded  also  to  the  char 
acter  of  Bishop  Carroll,  a  man  so  pure,  that  even  sec 
tarian  bigotry  could  find  nothing  to  allege  against  him. 
It  was  not,  therefore,  the  particular  religious  notions, 
which  a  man  entertained,  that  made  him  a  good  citizen 
or  a  good  man." 

Air.  Macon  said:  "  Fears  seemed  to  be  entertained  by 
some  gentlemen  that  the  Roman  Catholics  would  over 
run  the  country.  They  might  do  it,  but  he  did  not  think 
it  was  half  as  probable  as  that  a  mouse  would  kill  a 
buffaloe.  Let  them  come  when  they  will,  Mr.  Macon 
said,  he  would  lay  a  wager  that  the  Protestants  convert- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  187 

ed  two  to  the  Catholics  one.  As  for  himself  he  was  in 
clined  to  the  Baptist  church,  and  he  did  not  care  who 
knew  it ;  but  he  was  far  from  believing  in  all  their  doc 
trines.  Neither  did  he  believe  it  essential,  that  a  man 
should  attach  himself  to  any  particular  church.  If  he 
faithfully  discharged  all  his  duties  on  earth,  and  obeyed 
the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  he  would  not  be  asked,  when 
he  reached  heaven,  to  what  sect  he  belonged.  Mr.  Ma- 
con  said,  in  conclusion,  he  would  not  have  troubled  the 
committee,  but  he  did  not  wish  any  one  to  believe  that 
he  was  disposed  to  skulk  from  responsibility.  He  was 
not  vain  enough  to  believe  his  opinions  would  have  any 
weight  in  that  body,  but  he  must  be  allowed  to  say,  that 
he  considered  the  decision  of  this  question,  as  involving 
the  future  character  of  North  Carolina." 

The  reader  will  perceive  that  this  speech  of  Mr.  Ma- 
con's  was  made  upon  one  of  the  most  important  subjects 
that  ever  came  before  any  deliberative  body — upon  the 
subject  of  religious  toleration.  And  that  the  sentiments 
here  expressed  by  him  on  account  of  their  liberality, 
will  be  an  honor  to  his  memory  in  every  country  and  in 
every  age  hereafter,  wherever  liberty  of  conscience 
have,  any  share  in  political  institutions. 

These  sentiments  go  to  prove,  that  the  interference 
of  organised  society  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  opin 
ion  and  manners,  is  not  only  useless,  but  pernicious. 

This  property,  in  political  regulations,  is  so  far  from 
being  doubtful,  that  to  it  alone  we  are  to  ascribe  all  the 
calamities  that  government  has  inflicted  on  mankind. 
When  a  regulation  coincides  with  the  habits  and  propen 
sities  of  mankind  at  the  time  it  is  introduced,  it  will  be 
found  sufficiently  capable  of  maintaining  those  habits 


188  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

and  propensities,  in  the  greater  part,  unaltered  for  centu 
ries.     In  this  view,  it  is  doubly  pernicious. 

To  understand  this  more  accurately,  let  us  apply  it  to 
the  case  of  rewards,  which  has  always  been  a  favourite 
topic  with  the  advocates  of  an  improved  legislature. 
How  often  have  we  been  told,  "  that  talents  and  virtues 
would  spring  up  spontaneously  in  a  country,  one  of  the 
objects  of  whose  constitution  should  be  to  secure  to  them 
an  adequate  reward?"  Now,  to  judge  of  the  propriety 
of  this  aphorism,  we  should  begin  with  recollecting,  that 
the  discerning  of  merit,  is  an  individual,  and  not  a  social 
capacity.  What  can  be  more  reasonable,  than  that  each 
man  for  himself  should  estimate  the  merits  of  his  neigh 
bour?  To  endeavour  to  institute  a  general  judgment  in 
the  name  of  the  whole,  and  to  melt  down  the  different 
opinion,  appears  at  first  sight  so  monstrous  an  attempt, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  augur  well  of  its  consequences. 
Will  this  judgment  be  wise,  reasonable  or  just?  Wher 
ever  each  man  is  accustomed  to  decide  for  himself,  and 
the  appeal  of  merit  is  immediately  to  the  opinion  of  its 
contemporaries,  if  there  were  not  for  the  false  bias  of 
some  positive  institution,  we  expect  a  genuine  ardour  in 
him,  who  aspired  to  excellence,  creating  and  receiving 
impressions  in  the  presence  of  an  impartial  audience. 
We  might  expect  the  judgment  of  the  auditors,  to  ripen  by 
perpetual  exercise,  and  the  mind,  ever  curious  and  awake, 
continually  to  approach  nearer  to  the  standard  of  truth. 
What  do  we  gain  in  compensation  for  this,  by  setting  up 
authority  as  the  general  oracle,  from  which  the  active 
mind  is  to  inform  itself  what  of  excellence  it  should 
seek  to  inquire;  and  the  public  at  large,  what  judgment 
they  should  pronounce  upon  their  contemporaries  ?  What 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  189 

should  we  think  of  an  act  of  congress  appointing  some 
particular  individual  president  of  the  court  of  criticism, 
and  judge  in  the  last  resort  of  the  literary  merit  of  dra 
matic  compositions  ?  Is  there  any  solid  reason  why  we 
should  expect  better  things,  from  authority  usurping  the 
examination  of  moral  or  political  excellence?  Nothing 
can  be  more  unreasonable  than  the  attempt  to  retain  men 
in  one  common  opinion  by  the  dictate  of  authority.  The 
opinion  thus  obtruded  upon  the  minds  of  the  public,  is 
not  their  real  opinion  ;  it  is  only  a  project  by  which  they 
are  rendered  incapable  of  forming  an  opinion.  When 
ever  government  assumes  to  deliver  us  from  the  trouble 
of  thinking  for  ourselves,  the  only  consequences  it  pro 
duces,  are  torpor  and  imbecility.  Wherever  truth  stands 
in  the  mind  unaccompanied  by  the  evidence  upon  which 
it  depends,  it  cannot  properly  be  said  to  be  apprehended 
at  all.  Mind  in  this  case  robbed  of  its  essential  charac 
ter  and  genuine  employment,  and  along  with  them  must 
be  expected  to  lose  all  that  which  is  capable  of  rende 
ring  its  operations  salutary  and  admirable.  Either  man 
kind  will  resist  the  assumptions  of  authority  undertaking 
to  superintend  their  opinions,  and  then  these  assumptions 
will  produce  no  more  than  an  ineffectual  struggle ;  or 
they  will  submit,  and  then  the  effects  will  be  injurious. 
He  that  in  any  degree  consigns  to  another  the  task  of 
dictating  his  opinions  and  his  conduct,  will  cease  to  in 
quire  for  himself,  or  his  inquiries  will  be  languid  and  in 
animate. 

Further  regulations,  will  originally  be  instituted  in 
favour  of  falsehood  or  truth.  In  the  first  case,  no  ration 
al  inquirer  will  pretend  to  alledge  any  thing  in  their  de 
fence,  but  even  should  truth  be  their  object,  yet  such  is 


190 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


their  nature,  that  they  infallibly  defeat  the  very  purpose, 
they  were  intended  to  serve.  Truth  when  originally 
presented  to  the  mind,  is  powerful  and  invigorating;  but 
when  attempted  to  be  perpetual  by  political  institutions, 
becomes  flaccid  and  lifeless.  Truth,  in  its  unpatronised 
state,  strengthens  and  improves  the  understanding ;  be 
cause  in  that  state  it  is  embraced  only  so  far  as  it  is  per 
ceived  to  be  truth.  But  truth  when  recommended  by 
authority,  is  weakly  and  irresolutely  embraced.  The 
opinions  we  entertain  are  no  longer  properly  our  own ; 
we  respect  them  as  a  lesson  appropriated  by  rote,  but  we 
do  not,  strictly  speaking,  understand  them,  and  we  are 
not  able  to  assign  the  evidence  upon  which  they  rest. 
Instead  of  the  firmness  of  independence,  we  are  taught 
to  bow  to  authority,  we  know  not  why.  Persons  thus 
trammelled,  are  not  strictly  speaking,  capable  of  a  single 
virtue.  The  first  duty  of  man  is  to  take  none  of  the 
principles  of  conduct  upon  trust;  to  do  nothing  without  a 
clear  and  individual  conviction  that  it  is  right  to  be  done. 
He  that  resigns  his  understanding  upon  one  particular 
topic,  will  not  exercise  it  vigorously  upon  others.  If 
he  be  right  in  any  instance,  it  will  be  inadvertently  and 
by  chance.  The  consciousness  of  the  degradation  to 
which  he  is  subjected,  will  perpetually  haunt  him;  or  at 
least,  he  will  want  the  consciousness  that  accrues  from 
independent  considerations  ;  and  therefore  will  equally 
want  that  inteprid  perseverance,  that  calm  self  approba 
tion  that  grows  out  of  independence.  Such  beings,  are 
the  mere  damps  and  mockery  of  men ;  their  efforts  com 
paratively  pusillanimous,  and  the  vigor,  with  which  they 
should  execute  their  purposes,  superficial  and  hallow. 
Strangers  to  conviction,  they  will  never  be  able  to  dis- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  191 

linguish  between  prejudice  and  reason.  Nor  is  this  the 
worse.  Even  when  the  glimpses  of  inquiry  suggest 
themselves,  they  will  not  dare  to  yield  to  the  temptation. 
To  what  purpose  inquire,  when  the  law  has  told  us  what 
to  believe,  and  what  must  be  the  termination  of  our  in 
quiries  ?  Even  when  opinion,  properly  so  called,  suggest 
itself,  we  are  compelled,  if  it  differ  in  any  degree  from 
the  established  system,  to  shut  our  eyes  and  loudly  pro 
fess  our  adherence,  where  we  doubt  the  most.  This 
compulsion  may  exist  in  many  different  degrees.  But 
supposing  it  to  amount  to  no  more  than  a  very  slight 
temptation  to  be  insincere,  what  judgment  must  we  form 
of  such  a  regulation,  either  in  a  moral  or  intellectual 
view  ?  Of  a  regulation  inviting  men  to  the  profession  of 
certain  opinions  by  the  proffer  of  a  reward,  and  deterring 
them  from  a  severe  examination  of  their  justice,  by  pen 
alties  and  disabilities. 

A  system  like  this,  does  not  content  itself  with  habitu 
ally  unnerving  the  mind  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
through  all  ranks,  but  provides  for  its  own  continuance 
by  debauching  or  terrifying  the  few  individuals,  who,  in 
the  midst  of  the  general  emasculation,  might  retain  their 
curiosity  and  love  of  enterprise.  We  may  judge  how 
pernicious  it  is  in  its  operation  in  this  respect,  by  the 
long  reign  of  papal  usurpation  in  the  dark  ages,  and  the 
many  attacks  upon  it  that  were  suppressed,  previously  to 
the  successful  one  of  Luther.  Even  yet,  how  few  are 
there  that  venture  to  examine  into  the  foundation  of  ma- 
homitism  and  Christianity ;  or  the  effects  of  monarchy  and 
aristocracy,  in  countries  where  those  systems  are  estab 
lished  by  law.  Supposing  men  were  free  from  persecu 
tion  for  their  hostilities  in  this  respect,  yet  the  investiga- 


192  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tion  could  never  be  impartial,  while  so  many  allurements 
are  held  out,  inviting  men  to  a  decision  in  one  particular 
way.  To  these  considerations  may  be  added,  that  what 
is  right  under  certain  circumstances  to-day,  may  by  an 
alteration  in  those  circumstances  become  wrong  to-mor 
row.  Right  and  wrong  are  the  results  of  certain  rela 
tions,  and  those  relations  are  founded  in  the  respective 
qualities  of  the  beings  to  whom  they  belong.  Change 
those  qualities,  and  the  relations  become  altogether  dif 
ferent.  The  treatment  we  are  bound  to  bestow  upon 
any  one  depends  upon  our  capacity  and  their  circum 
stances.  Increase  the  first,  or  vary  the  second,  and  we 
are  bound  to  a  different  treatment.  We  are  bound  at 
present  to  subject  an  individual  to  forcible  restraint,  be 
cause  we  are  not  wise  enough  by  reason  alone  to  change 
his  vicious  propensities.  The  moment  we  can  render 
ourselves  wise  enough,  we  ought  to  confine  ourselves  to 
the  latter  mode.  Universally,  it  is  a  fundamental  princi 
pal  in  sound  political  science,  that  a  nation  is  best  fitted 
for  the  amendment  of  its  civil  government  by  being  made 
to  understand  and  desire  the  advantages  of  that  amend 
ment;  and  the  moment  it  is  so  understood  and  desired,  it 
ought  to  be  introduced.  But  if  their  be  any  truth  in 
these  views;  nothing  can  be  more  adverse  to  reason  or 
inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  man,  than  positive  regu 
lations  tending  to  continue  a  certain  mode  of  proceeding 
when  its  utility  is  gone. 

If  we  would  be  more  completely  convinced  of  these 
truths,  we  ought  in  the  last  place  explicitly  to  contrast 
the  nature  of  mind  and  the  nature  of  government. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  unquestionable  properties  of  mind 
to  be  susceptible  of  perpetual  improvement.  It  is  the 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  193 

inalienable  tendency  of  a  positive  regulation,  to  retain 
that  with  which  it  is  conversant,  for  ever  in  the  same 
state.  Is  then  the  perfectability  of  the  understanding 
an  attribute  of  trivial  importance?  Is  it  to  be  believed, 
that  if  the  interference  of  positive  institutions  were  out 
of  the  question,  the  progress  of  mind  in  past  ages  would 
have  been  so  slow,  as  to  have  struck  the  majority  of  in 
genious  observers  with  despair  ?  The  science  of  Greece 
and  Rome  upon  the  subject  of  political  justice,  was  in 
many  respects  extremely  imperfect ;  yet  could  our  an 
cestors  have  been  so  long  in  appropriating  their  discove 
ries,  had  not  the  allurements  of  reward,  and  the  menace 
of  persecution,  united  to  induce  them  not  to  trust  to  the 
first  and  fair  verdict  of  their  own  understandings. 

One  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  the  injurious 
effects  of  the  political  patronage  of  opinion,  as  it  at  pre 
sent  exists  in  the  world,  is  to  be  found  in  this  system  of 
religious  conformity.  Let  us  take  our  example  from  the 
church  of  England,  by  the  constitution  of  which  sub 
scription  is  required  from  its  clergy  to  thirty-nine  articles 
of  precise  and  dogmatical  assertion  upon  almost  every 
subject  of  moral  and  metaphysicial  inquiry.  Here  then 
we  have  to  consider  the  whole  honors  and  revenues  of 
the  church,  from  the  archbishop  who  takes  precedence 
next  after  the  princes  of  blood  royal,  to  the  meanest  curate 
in  the  nation,  as  employed  in  support  of  a  system  of 
blind  submission  and  abject  hypocrisy.  Is  there  one 
man  through  this  numerous  hierarchy  that  is  at  liberty  to 
think  for  himself?  Is  there  one  man  among  them  that 
can  lay  his  hand  upon  his  heart,  and  declare,  upon  his 
honor  and  conscience,  that  his  emoluments  have  no  effect 
in  influencing  his  judgment  ?  The  declaration  is  literally 
17 


194  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

impossible.  The  most  that  an  honest  man  under  such 
circumstances  can  say,  is,  "I  hope  not;  I  endeavor  to  be 
impartial." 

This  system  of  religious  conformity  is  a  system  of 
blind  submission ; — in  every  country  possessing  a  reli 
gious  establishment,  the  state,  from  a  benevolent  care,  it 
may  be,  for  the  manners  and  opinions  of  its  subjects,  pub 
licly  encourage  a  numerous  class  of  men  to  the  study  of 
morality  and  virtue.  What  institution,  we  might  obvious 
ly  be  led  to  inquire,  can  be  more  favorable  to  public  hap 
piness?  Morality  and  virtue  are  the  most  interesting 
topics  of  human  speculation  ;  and  the  best  effects  might 
be  expected  to  result  from  the  circumstance  of  many 
persons  perpetually  receiving  the  most  liberal  education, 
and  setting  themselves  apart  for  the  express  cultivation 
of  these  topics.  But  unfortunately,  these  very  men  are 
fettered  in  the  outset,  by  having  a  code  of  propositions 
put  into  their  hands  in  a  conformity  to  which  all  their 
inquiries  must  terminate.  The  direct  tendency  of  sci 
ence  is  to  increase,  from  age  to  age,  and  proceed  from 
the  slenderest  beginnings  to  the  most  admirable  conclu 
sions.  But  care  is  taken  in  the  present  case  to  antici 
pate  these  conclusions,  and  to  blind  men  by  promises 
and  penalties,  not  to  improve  upon  the  wisdom  of  their 
ancestors.  The  plan  is  to  guard  against  degeneracy,  and 
decline,  but  never  to  advance.  It  is  founded  in  the  most 
sovereign  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  mind,  which 
never  fails  to  do  the  one  or  the  other.  Ignorance  is  not 
necessary  to  render  men  virtuous.  If  it  were,  we  might 
reasonably  conclude  that  virtue  was  an  imposture,  and 
it  was  our  duty  to  free  ourselves  from  its  shackles.  The 
cultivation  of  the  understanding  has  no  tendency  to  cor- 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  195 

rupt  the  heart.  A  man  who  should  possess  all  the  sci 
ence  of  Newton,  and  all  the  genius  of  Shakspeare, 
would  not,  on  that  account,  be  a  bad  man.  From  this 
course  of  reasoning,  we  may  be  assisted  in  detecting  the 
error  of  the  elder  Cato,  and  of  other  persons  who  have 
been  the  zealous  but  mistaken  advocates  of  virtue.  It 
is  like  the  taking  to  pieces  an  imperfect  machine,  in  order, 
by  reconstructing  it,  to  enhance  its  value.  An  uninfor 
med  and  timid  spectator  would  be  alarmed  at  the  temeri 
ty  of  the  artist,  at  the  confused  heap  of  pins  and  wheels 
that  were  laid  aside  at  random,  and  would  take  it  for 
granted,  that  nothing  but  destruction  would  be  the  con 
sequence.  But  he  would  be  disappointed.  It  is  thus 
that  the  extravagant  sallies  of  mind  are  the  prelude  of 
the  highest  wisdom,  and  that  the  dreams  of  Ptolemy 
were  destined  to  precede  the  discoveries  of  Newton. 

As  long  as  inquiry  is  suffered  to  proceed,  and  science 
to  improve,  our  knowledge  is  perpetually  increased.  Shall 
we  know  every  thing  else  and  nothing  of  ourselves? 
Shall  we  become  clear  sighted  and  penetrating  in  all 
other  subjects,  without  increasing  our  penetration  upon 
the  subject  of  man?  Is  vice  most  truly  allied  to  wisdom 
or  to  folly?  Can  mankind  perpetually  increase  in  wis 
dom,  without  increasing  in  the  knowledge  of  what  is 
wise  for  them  to  do?  Can  a  man  have  a  clear  discern 
ment,  unclouded  wUh  the  remains  of  any  former  mis 
take,  that  this  is  the  action  he  ought  to  perform,  most 
conducive  to  his  own  interest  and  the  general  good ; 
most  agreeable  to  reason,  justice  and  the  nature  of  things, 
and  refrain  from  performing  it?  Every  system  which 
has  been  constructed  relative  to  the  nature  of  superior 
beings  and  gods,  amidst  all  other  errors,  has  reasoned  tru- 


195  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

ly  upon  these  topics,  and  taught  that  the  accession  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  led  not  to  malignity  and  tyran 
ny,  but  to  benevolence  and  justice. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  speculative  differences 
of  opinion,  threaten  materially  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
society.  It  is  only  when  they  are  enabled  to  arm  them 
selves  with  the  authority  of  government,  to  form  parties 
in  the  state,  and  to  struggle  for  that  political  ascendency 
which  is  too  frequently  exerted  in  support  of  or  in  oppo 
sition  to  some  particular  creed,  they  become  dangerous. 
Whenever  government  is  wise  enough  to  maintain  an 
inflexible  neutrality,  these  jarring  sects  are  always  found 
to  live  together  with  sufficient  harmony.  The  very 
means  that  have  been  employed  for  the  preservation  of 
order,  have  been  the  only  means  that  have  led  to  its  dis 
turbance.  The  moment  government  resolves  to  admit 
of  no  regulation,  oppressive  to  either  party,  controversy 
finds  its  level,  and  appeals  to  argument  and  reason,  in 
stead  of  appealing  to  the  sword  or  the  stake.  The  mo 
ment  government  descends  to  wear  the  badge  of  a  sect, 
religious  war  is  commenced,  the  world  is  degraced  with 
inextricable  broils,  and  deluged  with  blood. 

What  is  the  language,  that  in  strictness  of  interpreta 
tion  belongs  to  the  act  of  a  legislature,  imposing  religious 
test  which  is  to  qualify  a  man  to  receive  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  the  society  in  which  he  should  live  r 
To  one  party  it  says,  "  we  know  that  you  are  our  friends ; 
the  test  as  it  relates  to  you,  we  acknowledge  to  be  alto 
gether  superfluous,  nevertheless  you  must  undergo  it,  as 
a  cover  to  our  indirect  purposes  in  imposing  it  upon  per 
sons  whose  views  are  less  unequivocal  than  yours."  To 
the  other  party  it  says,  "it  is  vehemently  suspected  that 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  197 

you  are  inimical  to  the  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged : 
this  suspicion  is  either  true  or  false  ;  if  false,  we  ought 
not  to  suspect  you,  and  much  less  ought  we  to  put  you 
to  this  corrupting  and  nugatory  purgation;  if  true,  you 
will  either  candidly  confess  your  difference,  or  dishonest 
ly  prevaricate;  be  candid,  and  we  will  indignantly  ban 
ish  you ;  be  dishonest,  and  we  will  receive  you  as  our 
bosom  friends."  Duty  and  common  sense  oblige  us  to 
watch  the  man  we  suspect,  even  though  he  should  swear 
he  is  innocent.  Would  not  the  same  precautions  wrhich 
we  are  still  obliged  to  employ  to  secure  us  against  his 
duplicity,  have  sufficiently  answered  our  purpose  without 
putting  him  to  his  purgation  ?  Are  there  no  method  by 
which  we  can  find  out  whether  a  man  be  the  proper  sub 
ject  in  whom  to  repose  an  important  trust,  without  putting 
the  question  to  himself?  Will  not  he  who  is  so  dange 
rous  an  enemy  that  we  cannot  trust  him,  discover  his 
enmity  by  his  conduct,  without  reducing  us  to  the  pain 
ful  necessity  of  tempting  him  to  an  act  of  prevarication? 
If  he  be  so  subtle  a  hypocrite  that  our  vigilance  cannot 
detect  him,  will  he  scruple  to  add  to  his  other  crimes, 
the  crime  of  perjury  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  construct  a  test  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  suit  the  various  opinions  of  those  upon  whom  it  is  im 
posed,  and  not  to  be  liable  to  reasonable  objections. 

When  the  law  was  repealed  imposing  upon  the  dissen 
ting  clergy  of  England,  a  subscription  with  certain  reserva 
tions,  to  the  articles  of  the  established  church,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  invent  an  unexceptionable  test  that  might  be 
substituted  in  its  room.  This  test  simply  affimed  "  that 
the  books  of  the  old  and  new  testament,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  person  who  took  it,  contained  a  revelation  from  God," 
17* 


198  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

and  it  was  supposed  that  no  Christian  could  scruple  such 
declaration.  But  is  it  impossible  that  a  man  should  be  a 
Christian,  and  yet  doubt  of  the  canonical  authority  of  the 
amatory  eclogues  of  Solomon,  of  certain  other  books  con 
tained  in  a  selection  that  was  originally  made  in  very  ar 
bitrary  manner?  Still  however  he  may  take  the  test,  with 
the  persuasion,  that  the  old  and  new  testament  contain  a 
revelation  from  God  and  something  more.  In  the  same 
sense,  he  might  take  it,  even  if  the  Alcoran,  the  Talmud, 
and  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  were  added  to  the 
list.  What  sort  of  influence  will  be  produced  upon  the 
mind  that  is  accustomed  to  this  looseness  of  construction 
in  its  most  solemn  engagements  ? 

To  conclude  upon  this  subject  of  political  restraint  on 
account  of  religious  tenets.  Can  there  be  any  solid 
ground  of  distinction  except  what  is  founded  in  personal 
merit  ?  Are  not  men  really  and  strictly  considered,  equal, 
except  so  far  as  what  is  personal  and  inalienable  makes 
them  differ  ?  To  these  questions  there  can  be  but  one 
reply,  "such  is  the  order  of  reason  and  absolute  truth ; 
but  artificial  distinctions  are  necessary  for  the  happiness 
of  mankind.  Without  deception  and  prejudice,  the  tur 
bulence  of  human  passions  cannot  be  restrained."  Let 
us  then  examine  the  merits  of  his  theory  ;  and  these  will 
be  best  illustrated  by  an  instance. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  politicians,  that  the  doctrine 
which  teaches  that  men  will  be  externally  tormented  in 
another  world,  for  their  errors  and  misconduct  in  this,  is 
"in  our  nature  unreasonable  and  absurd,  but  that  it  is 
nevertheless  necessary  to  keep  mankind  in  awe.  Do 
we  not  see,  say  they,  "that  notwithstanding  this  terrible 
denunciation*  the  world  is  overrun  with  vice?  What 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  199 

then  would  be  the  case  if  the  irregular  passions  of  man 
kind  were  set  free  from  their  present  restraint,  and  they 
had  not  the  fear  of  this  retribution  before  their  eyes  ?" 

This  argument  seems  to  be  founded  in  a  singular  inat 
tention  to  the  dictates  of  history  and  experience,  as  well 
as  those  of  reason.  The  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans 
had  nothing  of  this  dreadful  apparatus  of  fire  and  brim 
stone;  and  a  torment,  "the  smoke  of  which  ascends  for 
ever  and  ever."  Their  religion  was  less  personal  than 
political.  They  confided  in  the  gods  as  protectors  of 
the  state ;  and  this  inspired  them  with  invincible  courage. 
In  periods  of  public  calamity,  they  found  a  ready  conso 
lation  in  expiatory  sacrifices  to  appease  the  anger  of  their 
gods.  The  attention  of  these  beings  was  conceived  to 
be  principally  directed  to  the  ceremonials  of  religion, 
and  very  little  to  the  moral  excellence  and  defects  of 
their  votaries,  which  were  supposed  to  be  sufficiently 
provided  for  by  the  inevitable  tendency  of  moral  excel 
lence  or  defect,  to  increase  or  diminish  individual  hap 
piness.  If  their  system,  included  the  doctrine  of  future 
existence,  little  attention  was  paid  by  them  to  the  con 
necting  the  moral  deserts  of  individuals  in  this  life  with 
their  comparative  situation  in  another.  The  same  omis 
sion  ran  through  the  systems  of  the  Persians,  the  Egyp 
tians,  the  Celts,  the  Phenicians,  the  Jews,  and  indeed 
every  system  which  has  not  been,  in  some  manner  or 
other,  the  offspring  of  the  Christian.  If  we  were  to  form 
our  judgment  of  these  nations  by  the  above  argument, 
we  should  expect  to  find  every  individual  among  them 
cutting  their  neighbour's  throat,  and  hackneyed  in  the 
commission  of  every  enormity  without  measure,  and 
without  remorse.  But  they  were  in  reality  as  suscepti- 


200  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

ble  of  the  regulations  of  government  and  the  order  of 
society,  as  those  whose  imaginations  have  been  most 
artfully  terrified  by  the  threats  of  future  retribution ;  and 
some  of  them  much  more  generous,  determined  and  at 
tached  to  the  public  weal. 

We  do  not  intend,  by  the  foregoing  remarks,  to  in 
cense  the  feelings  of  intolerants,  but  to  reason  with  them 
upon  the  subject,  and  produce  the  conviction  in  their 
minds,  that  any  and  every  thing  savouring  of  dictation 
or  restriction  in  matters  that  concern  liberty  of  con 
science,  is  diametrically  at  war  with  republican  institu 
tions  ;  and  when  a  true  republican,  such  a  one  as  Mr. 
Macon  was,  reads  that  provision  in  the  old  constitution 
of  North  Carolina,  which  proclaimed  "  that  no  person 
who  should  deny  the  being  of  Godj  or  the  truth  of  the 
Protestant  religion,  or  the  divine  authority  either  of  the 
old  and  new  testament,  or  who  should  hold  religious 
principles  incompatible  with  the  freedom  and  safety  of 
the  state,  should  be  capable  of  holding  any  office,  or 
place  of  trust,  or  profit,  in  the  civil  department  within 
this  state."  He  must  pronounce  an  anathema — apoliti 
cal  excommunication, — far  more  terrible  and  grating  to 
the  ears  of  a  freeman,  than  were  "the  thunders  of  the 
Vatican,"  formally,  to  the  blind  and  ignorant  devotee  at 
the  shrine  of  papal  power  and  supremacy. 

Persecution  never  did  effect  the  object  for  which  it 
was  intended;  it  seldom  fails  to  create  a  strong  and  pow 
erful  sympathy  in  favour  of  its  victim ;  and  instead  of 
crushing  its  unhappy  subject  in  its  infuriated  pangs,  it 
gives  additional  life,  power  and  activity  to  its  progress. 
If  this  spirit  is  permitted  to  prevail,  probably  Mr.  Macon 
was  not  so  far  wrong  when  he  declared  in  this  convene 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  20 

tion,  that  he  did  not  believe  the  revolution  of  1688,  had 
done  any  essential  good, — for,  from  that,  had  sprung  the 
bigotted  intolerance,  which  every  one  must  acknowledge 
has  descended  to  the  present  generation,  and  was  too 
plainly  manifested  in  that  body.  If  the  Catholic  was 
excluded  from  the  offices  of  honor  and  emolument,  is 
there  any  justice  or  honesty  in  subjecting  him  to  the 
taxes  and  drudgery  of  the  Government?  To  our  mind 
the  exclusion  from  the  one,  and  the  exaction  of  the  other, 
was  a  violation  of  his  rights ;  and  if  he  be  this  poor  de 
luded  being,  occupying  this  nondescript  position  in  the 
community,  the  Protestant  zeal  might  have  been  mani 
fested  in  more  strict  conformity  to  the  charity  of  his 
gospel,  by  sending  to  him  the  missionary  heralds  of  the 
cross,  to  call  him  back  from  the  errors  of  his  ways ;  to 
lead  him  to  pure  fountains  of  living  water,  and  beseech 
him  to  abjure  the  heresies  of  his  mother  church  !  Com 
mon  charity  would  induce  us  to  believe  this  would  have 
been  their  course,  but  it  is  much  to  be  feared,  that  a  bit 
ter  spirit  of  malignant  jealousy  and  sectarian  rivalry,  has 
rather  prompted  and  engendered  this  uncharitable  and 
senseless  persecution.  Why  do  we  think  so?  Because 
such  a  course  of  conduct,  was  in  conflict  with  the  religi 
ous  doctrines  of  the  Protestant  faith, — does  not  accord 
with  the  charitable  disposition  and  tender  commiseration 
which  they  evince  even  for  the  heathen  and  those  who 
deny  the  existence  of  God,  and  is  an  implied  admission 
of  the  weakness,  fallibility  and  want  of  truth  of  their 
own  faith.  The  first  settlements  of  this  country  were 
produced,  and  the  broad  foundations  of  this  republic  were 
laid  by  this  same  spirit  of  religious  persecution  towards 
our  forefathers,  which  the  bigoted  zealots  of  the  present 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

day  here  evince  against  the  Roman  Catholic.  It  was  a 
boasted  birthright,  to  be  born  in  a  land  of  civil  and  religi 
ous  freedom.  The  persecuted  of  all  climes  were  invi 
ted  to  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed,  where  each  man 
might  "sit  down  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,"  and 
worship  Almighty  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience.  Restraints  upon  conscience,  and  civil  dis 
qualifications  in  consequence  thereof,  were  denounced 
as  violations  of  the  great  fundamental  rights  of  man ; 
taxation,  without  the  enjoyment  of  its  con-comitant, 
civil  rights,  was  pronounced  odious  and  oppressive ;  our 
pulpits,  legislative  halls  and  popular  assemblies,  rang  with 
denunciations  against  this  violent  invasion  upon  our  civil 
and  religious  rights,  until  this  noble  and  indignant  spirit, 
no  longer  controlled  by  the  fear  of  such  oppressive  pow 
er,  produced  our  great  and  mighty  revolution.  Then 
we  felt  our  own  weakness  and  inability  to  breast  the 
storm,  and  thought  it  then  no  heresy  to  seek  the  aid  of  a 
Catholic  king — the  current  of  popular  good  will  and  af 
fection  ran  strong  in  favor  of  our  Catholic  brethren  of 
France,  and  the  dominant  political  party  of  our  country, 
even  after  the  attainment  of  independence,  was  openly 
and  loudly  charged  with  being  under  French  influence. 
It  was  not  even  whispered  then,  that  our  Catholic  friends 
and  allies  entertained  religious  principles  incompatible 
with  the  freedom  and  safety  of  the  country ;  and  the 
charge  then,  would  have  been  deemed  base  and  treason 
able  ingratitude.  Who  periled  his  life,  his  fortune  and 
his  all,  in  the  establishment  of  civil  and  religious  free 
dom  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic?  Need  we  mention 
the  name  of  Lafayette,  and  with  him,  his  associates  in 
deeds  of  noble  daring,  in  behalf  of  that  sacred  cause. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  203 

Rochambeau,  Pulaski,  De  Kalb  and  others,  the  Catholic 
defenders  and  supporters  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
whose  gallant  exertions  in  our  revolutionary  struggle,  to 
maintain  these  inalienable  rights  of  man,  give  the  lie  to 
the  assertion  that  their  religion  is  dangerous  to  the  cause 
of  freedom  ?  Our  country  cannot  too  often  remember 
and  too  highly  appreciate  these  important  services,  and 
let  us  not  slander  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead,  by 
imputing  to  their  religion,  a  motive  so  utterly  variant 
from  the  cause  which  they  so  nobly  and  manfully  espou 
sed. 

In  England,  there  is  an  union  of  church  and  state, 
and  the  king  is  recognized  by  law,  as  the  supreme  head 
of  both ;  and  the  Catholics  acknowledge  the  pope  as  the 
supreme  head  of  their  church.  Here  is  an  obvious  conflict 
for  supremacy,  which  is  repudiated  as  belonging  either  to 
the  king  or  the  pope,  by  subjects  of  the  same  realm,  ac 
cording  to  their  different  religious  persuasions  or  predi 
lections.  The  Protestant  Episcopalian  claiming  it  for  the 
king,  and  the  Catholic  for  the  pope.  So  intimate  is  this 
connection  in  England,  between  the  Protestant  Episco 
palian  church  and  the  state,  that  the  king,  upon  his  coro 
nation,  when  asked  by  the  archbishop  or  bishop — "will 
you,  to  the  utmost  of  your  power,  maintain  the  laws  of 
God,  the  true  profession  of  the  gospel,  and  the  Protestant 
reformed  religion,  established  by  law?  And  will  you 
preserve  to  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  this  realm,  and  to 
the  churches  committed  to  their  charge,  all  such  rights 
and  privileges  as  by  law,  do  and  shall  appertain  unto 
them,  or  any  of  them  ?" — is  bound  to  answer  on  oath  ; 
"all  this  I  promise  to  do."  And  moreover,  he  is  com 
pelled  to  repeat  and  subscribe  the  declaration  against 


204  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

popery,  according  to  the  statute  of  Charles.  And  this  is 
not  all — the  Catholic,  before  he  is  permitted  to  enjoy 
office,  was  required  to  pass  through  the  fiery  ordeal  of 
the  corporation  and  test  acts ;  which  may  safely  be  pro 
nounced  as  amounting  to  an  odious  and  tyrannical  pro 
scription.  They  demanded  of  him  a  violation  of  the 
rights  of  conscience,  and  a  repudiation  of  some  of  the 
favourite  and  long  cherished  doctrines  of  his  church ; 
they  required  him  to  receive  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  according  to  the  rites  of  the  church  of  England; 
and  they  enjoined  upon  him  the  absolute  necessity  of 
taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  of  ma 
king  the  declaration  against  transubstantiation.  Here 
then  is  the  test  of  his  allegiance — in  accepting  office,  he 
must  acknowledge  the  king  as  the  head  of  the  church, 
and  thereby  repudiate  the  pope  ;  he  must  receive  the 
holy  eucharist  from  the  hands  of  those  whom  his  con 
science  taught  him  to  believe  "  had  no  authority,"  and  in 
a  manner  totally  repugnant  to  his  long  cherished  notions 
of  that  sacred  rite ;  and  to  close  the  scene  of  this  war 
fare  upon  conscience,  he  must  deny  the  doctrine  of  tran 
substantiation.  The  Catholic  in  England  does  deny  this 
supremacy  of  the  king,  and  therefore  may  be  said  to  re 
fuse  to  acknowledge  an  unqualified  allegiance ;  but  in 
this  free  and  happy  country,  where  no  connexion  be 
tween  church  and  state  exist,  and  there  is  no  religion  es 
tablished  by  law,  the  charge  becomes  a  slander  upon  his 
religious  character,  and  is  unfounded  in  truth  and  fact. 
If  the  Protestants  would  turn  their  attention  to  their  own 
denominations,  they  would  find  more  to  regret  in  them, 
and  less  to  criminate  in  the  Catholic  church,  than  their 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  205 

over-wrought  and  phrensied  zeal  will  permit  them  to  be 
lieve. 

We  would  not  have  it  understood,  that  because  we 
advocate  the  unrestricted  rights  of  conscience,  and  the 
abrogation  of  all  civil  disqualifications  on  account  of  re 
ligious  opinions,  that  we  entertain  any  unfriendly  feeling, 
or  could  be  guilty  of  the  slightest  disrespect  to  any  Pro 
testant  denomination.  But  is  the  persecution  of  the  Cath 
olic  for  conscience  sake,  required  of  them  in  the  bible, 
or  by  their  faith  ?  Or,  are  they  not,  like  the  Pharisee, 
conscious  of  their  own  self-righteousness,  and  glad  that 
they  are  not,  like  that  sinful  and  perverse  denomination? 
Whence  arises  the  diversity  in  their  faith, — the  dissention 
in  their  religious  opinions, — the  great  variety  of  other 
sects, — and  the  want  of  conformity  among  themselves  to 
any  uniform  standard  of  orthodoxy  ?  May  it  not  be 
found  in  the  uncontrolled  exercise  and  freedom  of  con* 
science  and  opinion, — in  the  untrammelled  adoption  of  a 
reasonable  and  popular  construction  of  the  bible,  and  in 
the  want  of  unity,  in  adhering  to  that  excellent  Catholic 
rule  of  referring  all  disputed  and  doubtful  points  of  faith 
and  interpretation,  to  a  council  of  the  great,  the  learned 
and  pious  ?  And  yet,  they  who  have  no  common  and 
uniform  standard  of  faith,  require  of  the  Roman  Catholic, 
before  he  can  be  permitted  to  enjoy  office,  that  he  must 
not  deny  the  truth  of  the  Protestant  religion.  "This  ty 
ranny,  and  depotism  of  opinion,  may  well  have  flourish 
ed  during  the  existence  of  the  dark  ages,  but  in  all  future 
time,  it  will  hardly  be  credited,  that  in  the  enlightened 
period  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  could  have  been 
found  bigotry,  fanaticism,  and  prejudice  enough,  to  have 
cherished  and  supported  so  intolerant  a  doctrine*  There 
18 


206  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

can  scarcely  be  an  intelligent  and  high-minded  inhabi* 
tant  of  the  state  of  North  Carolina,  entirely  free  from 
this  spirit,  but  what  must  blush,  for  the  honor  of  his  na 
tive  state,  when  he  reflects  that  with  the  sole  exception 
of  New  Jersey,  her  constitution  is  the  only  one  of  these 
United  States,  that  contained  so  illiberal,  intolerant  and 
prescriptive  a  gag  law  upon  the  consciences  of  men. 
And  when  he  reflects  that  there  are  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  millions  of  Catholics  in  the  world,  and  only  fifty 
four  millions  of  Protestants,  and  these  split  up  into  as 
many  sects  and  denominations  as  "construction,  contor 
tion  and  distortion"  can  give  to  the  disputed  points  of 
faith,  and  having  as  little  charity  for  each  other,  as  some 
of  them  have  for  the  Catholics,  he  cannot  but  regard  this 
puny  effort  to  put  down  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  as 
truly  characteristic  of  the  spirit  that  conceived  it,  and 
every  way  unworthy  of  a  great  and  high-minded  state." 

The  question  is,  ought  there  to  be  any  religious  test  in 
the  constitution  ?  Shall  any  man  be  debarred  from  office, 
merely  because  of  his  opinions  on  matters  of  religion-  ? 
To  us  it  seems,  if  there  can  be  any  certainty  in  moral  or 
political  science,  the  answer  must  be  in  the  negative. 
Yet,  notwithstading  all  the  efforts  that  could  be  made  by 
the  most  talented  members  in  that  convention, — the  only 
change  that  could  be  effected  in  this  abominable  article, 
was  to  substitute  the  word  Christian  for  that  of  Protestant. 

This  changing  one  word  for  another,  has  not  in  the 
least  affected  the  political  principles  upon  which  the 
great  objections  to  the  article  rested.  It  has  made 
the  matter  worse, — for  there  is  nothing  perhaps  that  has 
contributed  more  to  the  introduction  and  perpetuating  of 
bigotry  in  the  world,  than  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  207 

Christian  religion.  A  religion  which  enters  into  no  com 
promise  with  other  systems ;  which  represents  itself  as 
the  only  religion  now  in  the  world,  having  God  for  its 
author;  and  in  his  name,  and  by  the  hope  of  his  mercy, 
and  the  terrors  of  his  frown,  it  commands  the  obedience 
of  faith  to  all  people  to  whom  it  may  be  published. 
Throwing  every  other  religion  that  pretends  to  offer  hope 
to  man,  into  utter  insignificance.  It  first  caused  the 
spirit  of  intolerance  to  strike  deep  root.  And  it  has  en 
tailed  that  spirit  upon  many  who  have  shaken  off  the  di 
rect  influence  of  its  tenets.  It  is  the  characteristic  of 
this  religion,  to  lay  the  utmost  stress  upon  faith.  Its  cen 
tral  doctrine  is  contained  in  this.maxim: — he  thatbeliev- 
eth,  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be 
damned.  What  it  is  the  belief  of,  which  is  saving,  the 
records  of  the  religion  have  left  open  to  controversy ; 
but  the  fundamental  nature  of  faith,  is  one  of  its  most 
unquestionable  lessons.  Faith  is  not  only  necessary  to 
preserve  us  from  the  pains  of  hell ;  it  is  also  requisite  as 
a  qualification  for  temporal  blessings.  When  any  one 
applied  to  Jesus,  to  be  cured  of  any  disease,  he  was  first 
of  all  questioned  respecting  the  implicitness  of  his  faith. 
In  Gallilee,  and  other  places,  Christ  wrought  not  many 
miracles,  because  of  their  unbelief. 

In  those  governments  which  undertake  to  prescribe  a 
religious  faith  to  their  subjects,  and  command  its  profes 
sion  as  a  part  of  civil  duty,  there  is  at  least  a  congruity 
in  visiting  disobedience,  by  appropriate  penalties.  Inca- 
pacitation  for  office  is  there  a  punishment  for  disloyalty ; 
and  if  it  be  supposed  not  adequate  to  its  end,  it  is  follow 
ed  up  by  imprisonment,  fine,  confiscation,  exile,  torture 
and  death.  The  principle  is  the  same  in  all  these  grades 


209  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

of  punishment.  It  is  a  visitation  of  the  vengeance  of 
the  state  upon  those  who  offend  against  its  institutions. 
But  where  a  state  is  avowedly  based  on  religious  free 
dom,  where  it  proclaims  that  every  man  has  from  nature 
a  right,  which  he  cannot  surrender,  and  which  none  may 
take  away, — a  "natural  and  unalienable  right"  to  worship 
Almighty  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  con 
science, — a  right,  of  the  correct  exercise  of  which,  his 
conscience  is  the  sole  judge, — how  can  that  state  without 
a  violation  of  first  principles,  punish  him  by  degradation, 
because  of  the  exercise  of  that  very  right  ?  Civil  rights 
have  no  dependance  on  our  religious  opinions,  more  than 
our  opinions  in  physics  oc  geometry ;  therefore,  the  pro 
scribing  any  citizen  as  unworthy  the  public  confidence, 
by  laying  upon  him  an  incapacity  of  being  called  to  the 
offices  of  trust  and  emolument,  unless  he  profess  or  re 
nounce  this  or  that  religious  opinion,  is  depriving  him 
injuriously  of  those  privileges  and  advantages  to  which, 
in  common  with  his  fellow  citizens,  he  has  a  natural 
right:  it  tends  also  to  corrupt  the  principles  of  that  very 
religion  it  is  meant  to  encourage,  by  bribing,  with  a  mo 
nopoly  of  worldy  honors  and  emoluments,  those  who 
will  externally  profess  and  conform  to  it — and  though,  in 
deed,  those  are  criminal  who  do  not  withstand  such  temp 
tations,  yet  neither  are  those  innocent,  who  lay  the  bait 
in  their  way. 

"The  bestowal  of  an  office  by  the  community  on  one 
of  several  competitors  for  distinction  in  this  government, 
ought  not  to  be  felt  as  a  wrong  by  those  who  have  been 
disappointed,  because  their  claims  have  been  fairly  pre 
sented  to,  and  fairly  passed  upon  by  that  community ; 
yet  an  interdict  to  become  a  candidate  and  present  his 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  209 

claims  for  distinction,  would  be  felt  by  every  man  of 
sensibility,  as  an  act  of  arbitrary  power.  What  is  pun 
ishment,  but  pain  or  inconvenience  inflicted,  because  of 
something  done  or  intended?  Is  there  no  punishment 
but  that  which  causes  corporeal  sufferings  ?  Are  there 
not  pangs  "  sharper  than  what  the  body  knows  ?"  Is  an 
incapacity  to  be  called  to  an  office  of  public  trust  or 
emolument,  no  penalty  ?  Is  it  not  a  putting  down  of 
those,  declared  incapable,  below  the  rest  of  their  fellow 
citizens  ?  And  is  reproach,  is  loss  of  rank  in  society,  no 
privation, — no  injury?  The  oppressors  scorn  and  the 
proud  man's  contumely,  are  classed  by  him,  who  of  all 
mere  mortals,  seems  to  have  best  understood  human  na 
ture,  and  to  have  most  thoroughly  read  the  human  heart, 
as  among  the  sorest  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to.  Insult  is, 
of  all  injuries,  the  hardest  to  be  borne.  And  what  can 
be  a  more  direct  insult  to  any  man,  than  a  deliberate 
declaration  that  he  is  utterly  unworthy  of  confidence  ? 
Why,  the  miserable  wretch  who  is  whipped  for  larceny, 
writhes  less  under  this  torture,  than  under  the  disabilities 
which  the  conviction  produces.  It  is  no  punishment  to 
any  individual  not  to  be  called  on  to  give  testimony ;  but 
to  be  declared  infamous  and  incapable  of  giving  testimo 
ny,  is  more  than  he  can  bear." 

Reason  is  the  proper  umpire  of  opinion,  and  argument 
and  discussion  its  only  fit  advocates.  To  denounce  opin 
ions  by  law,  is  as  silly,  and  unfortunately  much  more  ty 
rannical,  as  it  would  be,  to  punish  crime  by  logic.  Laws 
call  out  the  force  of  the  community  to  compel  obedience 
to  its  mandates.  To  enforce  an  opinion  by  law,  is  to  en 
slave  the  intellect,  and  oppress  the  soul, — to  reverse  the 
order  of  nature,  and  make  reason  subservient  to  force. 
19* 


210  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

But  of  all  the  attempts  to  arrogate  unjust  dominion,  none 
is  so  pernicious  as  the  efforts  of  tyrannical  men,  to  rule 
over  the  human  conscience.  Religion  is  exclusively  an 
affair  between  God  and  man.  If  there  be  any  subject 
upon  which  the  interference  of  human  power  is  more 
forbidden  than  all  others,  it  is  religion. 

No  sentiment  is  more  prevalent  than  that  which  leads 
men  to  ascribe  the  variations  of  opinion  which  subsist 
in  the  world,  to  dishonesty  and  perverseness.  It  is  thus 
that  a  papist  judges  of  a  Protestant,  and  a  Protestant  of 
a  papist;  such  was  the  decision  of  the  Hanovarian  upon 
the  Jacobite,  and  the  Jacobite  upon  the  Hanovarian; 
such  the  notion  formed  by  the  friend  of  monarchy  con 
cerning  the  republican,  and  by  the  republican  concern 
ing  the  friend  of  monarchy.  The  chain  of  evidence  by 
which  every  one  of  these  parties  is  determined,  appears 
to  the  adherent  of  that  party,  so  clear  and  satisfactory, 
that  he  hesitates  not  to  pronounce  that  perverseness  of 
will  only  could  resist  it. 

No  character  is  more  rare  than  that  of  a  man  who  can 
do  justice  to  his  antagonist's  argument;  and  till  this  is 
done,  it  must  be  equally  difficult  to  do  justice  to  an  an 
tagonist's  integrity.  Ask  a  man,  who  has  been  the  audi 
tor  of  an  argument,  or  who  has  recently  read  a  book 
adverse  to  his  own  habits  of  thinking,  to  re-state  the  rea 
soning  of  the  adversary.  You  will  find  him  betraying 
the  cause  he  undertakes  to  explain  in  every  point.  He 
exhibits  nothing  but  a  miserable  deformity,  in  which  the 
most  vigilant  adversary  could  scarcely  recognize  his 
image.  Nor  is  there  any  dishonesty  in  this.  He  tells 
as  much  as  he  understood.  Since,  therefore,  he  under 
stands  nothing  of  the  adversary  but  his  opposition,  it  is 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON. 

no  wonder  that  he  is  virulent  in  his  invective  against 
him.  This  sort  of  uncharitableness  is  to  be  expected 
under  the  present  condition  of  human  intellect. 

The  ordinary  strain  of  partisans,  both  in  politics  and 
religion,  are  like  the  two  knights,  of  whom  we  are  told 
that  in  coming  in  opposite  directions  to  a  head  fixed  on 
a  pole  in  a  cross-way,  of  which  one  side  was  gold  and 
the  other  silver,  they  immediately  fell  to  tilting;  the 
right  champion  stoutly  maintained  that  the  head  was 
gold,  and  the  other  indignantly  rejoining  that  it  was  sil 
ver.  Not  one  disputant  in  ten  ever  gives  himself  the 
trouble  to  pass  over  to  his  adversary's  position ;  of  those 
that  do,  many  take  so  short  and  timid  a  glance,  and  with 
an  organ  so  clouded  with  prejudice,  that  for  any  benefit 
they  receive,  they  might  as  well  have  remained  eternally 
upon  the  same  spot. 

There  is  scarcely  a  question  in  the  world  that  does  not 
admit  of  two  plausible  statements.  There  is  scarcely  a 
story  that  can  be  told,  of  which  one  side  is  not  good  till 
the  other  is  related.  When  both  sides  have  been  heard, 
the  ordinary  result  to  a  careful  and  strict  observer,  is 
much  contention  of  evidence,  much  obscurity,  and  much 
scepticism.  He  that  is  smitten  with  so  ardent  a  love  of 
truth,  as  continually  to  fear  less  error  should  pass  upon 
him  under  some  specious  disguise,  will  find  himself  ulti 
mately  reduced  to  a  nice  weighing  of  evidence,  and  a 
subtle  observation  as  to  which  scale  preponderates  upon 
almost  every  important  question.  Such  a  man  will  ex 
press  neither  astonishment  nor  unbelief,  when  he  is  told 
that  another  person  of  uncommon  purity  of  motives,  has 
been  led  to  draw  a  different  conclusion. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  confer  a  greater  benefit  upon 
mankind,  than  would  be  conferred  by  him  who  should 
persuade  them  to  a  discarding  of  mutual  bigotry,  and 
induce  them  to  give  credit  to  each  other  for  their  com 
mon  differences  of  opinion.  Such  persuasion  would 
effect  an  almost  universal  rout  of  the  angry  passions. 
Persecution  and  prosecution  for  opinion  would  rarely 
exist  in  the  world.  Much  of  family  dissention,  much  of 
that  which  generates  alienation  in  the  kindest  bosoms, 
much  even  of  the  wars  which  has  hitherto  desolated 
mankind,  would  be  swept  away  for  ever  from  the  face 
of  the  earth.  There  is  nothing  about  which  men  quar 
rel  more  obstinately  and  irreconcilably,  than  difference 
of  opinion.  There  is  nothing  that  engenders  a  pro- 
founder  and  more  inveterate  hate. 

If  this  subject  was  once  understood,  we  should  then 
look  only  to  the  consequences  of  opinions.  We  should 
no  more  think  of  hating  a  man  for  being  an  atheist  or  a 
monarchist,  though  these  opinions  were  exactly  opposite 
to  our  own,  than  for  having  the  plague.  We  should 
pity  him,  and  regret  the  necessity,  if  necessity  there 
were,  for  taking  precautions  against  him.  In  the  mean 
time  there  is  this  difference  between  a  man  holding  er 
roneous  opinions,  and  a  man  infected  with  a  contagious 
distemper.  Mistaken  opinions  are  never  a  source  of 
tumult  and  disorder  unless  the  persons  who  hold  them 
are  persecuted,  or  placed  under  circumstances  of  iniqui 
tous  oppression.  The  remedy,  therefore,  in  this  case  is 
to  remove  unjustifiable  restraints,  and  then  leave  the 
question  to  be  fairly  decided  in  the  lists  of  argument  and 
reason, 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  213 

We  are  rarely  in  the  right  in  allowing  ourselves  to 
suspect  the  sincerity  of  others  in  the  cause  to  which  they 
profess  adherence  ;  for  nothing  can  be  more  various  than 
the  habits  of  different  minds,  or  more  diversified  than 
their  modes  of  contemplating  the  same  subject.  We 
can  never,  then,  have  a  just  view  of  the  sincerity  of 
men  in  opinion,  we  deem  to  be  absurd  till  we  have 
learned  to  put  ourselves  in  their  place,  and  to  become  the 
temporary  advocates  of  the  sentiment  we  reject. 

On  Thursday,  July  the  2nd,  a  resolution  was  before 
the  convention  to  settle  how  the  governor  should  be 
elected;  whether  by  the  legislature,  as  in  the  old  consti 
tution,  or  changed  by  giving  his  election  to  the  people. 

Mr.  Macon  in  making  his  remarks  upon  this  subject, 
"  did  not  think  it  made  much  difference  or  was  of  much 
importance,  whether  the  governor  is  elected  by  the  legis 
lature  or  the  people.  He  had  but  little  power.  If  he 
had  a  negative  power  over  the  laws  he  passed,  as  the 
governors  of  many  of  the  states  have,  he  should  say  he 
ought  to  be  elected  by  the  people.  Where  the  governor 
has  next  to  nothing  to  do,  it  is  of  little  consequence  who 
elects  him.  He  thought  he  might  as  well  be  elected  in 
the  old  way,  by  the  general  assembly.  It  is  impossible 
in  any  government  to  get  clear  of  caucusing ;  they  will 
be  held  either  publicly  or  privately.  In  all  public  bodies 
every  one  tries  to  get  his  friends  elected.  He  had  heard 
a  good  deal  said  about  consistency  of  conduct.  We  are, 
said  he,  none  of  us  consistent.  Consistency  is  perfec 
tion,  and  we  are  none  of  us  perfect.  It  is  the  man  that 
dignifies  the  office,  and  not  the  office  the  man.  Dick 
Henderson,  who  died  a  judge  and  filled  the  office  with 
dignity,  dignified  the  office  of  a  constable,  when  he  first 


214 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


entered  into  public  life.  Give  a  sycophant  an  office  and 
he  will  still  be  a  sycophant,  and  give  an  honest  man  an 
office  and  he  will  be  an  honest  man  still.  He  believed 
the  officers  in  this  government  did  their  duty  as  well  as 
those  in  any  of  our  neighbouring  states.  An  officer 
here  must  act  much  out  of  the  way,  if  he  be  not  re- 
elected  when  his  term  is  out." 

"Saturday,  July  Ilth,  was  the  close  of  the  conven 
tion,  and  Mr.  Gaston  of  Craven,  said,  that  before  the  con 
vention  performed  the  last  act  which  it  had  to  do,  he 
would  call  up  the  resolution  that  he  yesterday  laid  on 
the  table.  He  said,  I  am  about  to  offer  to  the  conven 
tion  a  resolution  on  which  I  know  I  shall  meet  with  per 
fect  unanimity.  However,  said  he,  we  may  have  been 
divided  on  other  subjects,  in  returning  our  acknowledg 
ments  to  our  venerable  president,  for  the  able  manner 
in  which  he  has  presided  over  this  body,  there  will  be 
no  difference  of  opinion.  The  following  resolution  was 
then  read :" 

"Resolved,  unanimously,  that  the  thanks  of  this  conven 
tion  are  due,  and  are  hereby  respectfully  and  affection 
ately  tendered  to  the  hon.  Nathaniel  Macon,  their  vene 
rable  president,  for  the  distinguished  ability,  dignity  and 
impartiality,  with  which  he  has  discharged  the  duties  of 
his  station." 

The  resolution  being  read,  Mr.  Carson  instantly  rose 
and  expressed  a  hope,  that  this  mark  of  well-deserved 
respect  to  their  venerable  friend,  for  probably  the  last 
public  act  of  his  life,  would  be  testified  by  the  members 
of  the  convention  standing.  The  word  was  no  sooner 
spoken,  than  every  member  in  the  convention  was  on 
his  feet. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  215 

The  president  who  had  resumed  his  chair,  addressed 
the  members  as  follows:  (Mr.  Swain  being  temporarily 
in  the  chair  just  before.) 

11  Gentlemen  :— 

"The  merits  which  you  have  ascribed  to  me,  in  the  per 
formance  of  my  duty  in  the  chair,  belong  to  you.  I 
have  been  for  a  long  time  engaged  in  public  business ; 
and  though  no  one  will  charge  me  with  being  a  flatterer, 
I  must  say  that  I  have  never  witnessed  so  much  good  or 
der,  and  decorum  of  conduct,  in  any  public  body  with 
which  I  have  been  connected.  When  I  entered  upon 
the  important  duties  to  which  the  convention  in  their 
kindness  called  me,  I  was  fearful  that  I  should  not  have 
been  able  to  discharge  them  with  any  satisfaction  to  my 
self  or  to  the  convention ;  nor  should  I,  without  attention, 
aid,  and  assistance.  To  you,  therefore,  my  thanks  are  due 
for  all  your  kindness." 

"This,  continued  Mr.  Macon,  I  expect,  will  be  the 
last  scene  of  my  public  life.  We  are  about  to  separate; 
and  it  is  my  fervent  prayer,  that  you  may,  each  of  you, 
reach  home  in  safety,  and  have  a  happy  meeting  with 
your  families  and  friends,  and  that  your  days  may  be 
long,  honorable  and  happy." 

"While  my  life  is  spared,  if  any  of  you  should  pass 
through  the  country  in  which  I  live,  I  should  be  glad  to 
see  you." 

This  valedictory  address  of  Mr.  Macon's  was  the  last 
he  ever  made.  In  it,  all  must  acknowledge,  that  phi 
lanthropy,  benevolence,  and  good  feeling,  which  can 
only  eminate  from  ihe  heart  of  a  good  man.  For  its 
simplicity,  perspicuity  and  modesty,  it  has  seldom,  if 


216  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

ever,  been  excelled.  The  effect  it  produced  at  the  time, 
was  scarcely  ever  witnessed.  Here  in  this  short  address, 
he  has  displayed  all  those  qualities,  both  of  mind  and 
heart,  which  we  have  in  previous  chapters  so  feebly  at 
tempted  to  ascribe  to  him.  And  though  he  looked  upon 
this  as  the  last  of  his  public  services,  yet  in  1836,  the 
year  following,  he  was  chosen  an  elector  of  president, 
and  vice  president,  on  the  republican  ticket, — and  at  the 
proper  time,  repaired  to  the  seat  of  government  and  per 
formed  the  duty  required  of  him.  This  was  the  closing 
act  of  Mr.  Macon's  public  life.  And  we  must  be  per 
mitted  to  remark, — if  the  public  estimation  of  a  man  be 
a  just  criterion  by  which  to  judge  of,  Mr.  Macon  was 
excelled  by  none  of  his  contemporaries,  since;  from  the 
time  almost  that  he  was  eligible,  he  was  honoured  with 
offices  of  trust  and  responsibility  by  his  fellow  citizens, 
until  nearly  the  close  of  his  life. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

MR.  MACON  in  his  life  time,  had  been  frequently  ap* 
plied  to,  to  have  his  likeness  taken; — his  objection  al 
ways  was,  that  it  should  not  be  taken  by  his  consent, 
because  in  after  time,  it  might  so  happen,  it  might  be 
sold  to  the  highest  bidder;  and  he  had  no  idea  that  any 
thing  that  should  be  said  to  represent  him,  should  ever 
be  so  jeopardized,  if  he  could  prevent  it.  Whilst  he 
was  a  member  of  the  convention  of  North  Carolina,  in 
1835,  an  application  was  made  to  him  for  this  purpose, 
and  upon  his  peremptory  refusal,  the  portrait  painter  asked 
him,  if  he  might  not  take  it,  whilst  he  was  sitting  in  the 
chair  as  speaker  of  that  body,  provided,  he,  Mr.  Macon, 
did  not  know  it  ?  His  answer  was,  no  sir ;  and  if  you 
do,  I  will  prosecute  you  for  a  libel.  A  similar  disposition 
was  manifested,  whenever  he  was  consulted  upon  the 
subject  of  his  life's  being  written.  Posthumous  fame 
said  he,  never  done  a  man  any  good,  and  he  who  wor 
shipped  it  in  anticipation  in  his  life  time,  would  always 
be  deceived  after  his  exit;  for  if  he  was  a  good  man,  his 
rewards  in  futurity  would  so  far  out  weigh  the  breath  of 
common  fame  in  this  world,  that  it  should  never  be  taken 
into  consideration.  If  he  desired,  any  thing  of  posthu 
mous  honour,  it  was,  that  he  might  be  regarded  with  af* 
fection  and  esteem  by  all  those  who  know  him ;  beyond 
that,  said  he,  he  had  no  ambition. 
19 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Moral  fame,  said  he,  was  subject  to  a  great  variety  of 
disadvantages,  which  are  not  incident  to  the  fame  of  li 
terature.  In  the  latter  instance,  posterity  has  the  whole 
subject  fairly  before  them.  We  may  dispute  about  the 
merits  of  Homer  and  Shakspeare,  but  they  have  at  least 
this  benefit,  that  the  entire  evidence  is  in  court.  Who 
ever  will,  may  read  their  works ;  and  needs  only  a  firm, 
unbiased  and  cultivated  judgment,  to  decide  upon  their 
excellences.  A  story  of  sir  Walter  Raleigh  has  often 
been  repeated  by  him  on  these  occasions,  and  its  pecu 
liar  aptness  to  the  illustration  of  the  present  subject,  will 
excuse  its  being  mentioned  here.  When  sir  Walter  Ra 
leigh  wrote  his  history  of  the  world,  he  was  a  prisoner 
in  the  tower  of  London.  One  morning,  he  heard  the 
noise  of  a  vehement  contention  under  his  window,  but 
he  could  neither  see  the  combatants,  nor  distinguish  ex 
actly  what  was  said.  One  person  after  another  came  into' 
his  apartment,  and  he  enquired  of  them,  the  nature  of 
the  affray ;  but  their  accounts  were  so  inconsistent,  that 
he  found  himself  wholly  unable,  to  arrive  at  the  truth  of 
the  story.  Sir  Walter's  reflections  on  this,  was  obvious, 
yet  acute.  What,  said  he,  can  I  not  make  myself  mas 
ter  of  an  incident  that  happened  an  hour  ago  under  my 
window ;  and  shall  I  imagine,  I  can  truly  understand  the 
history  of  Hannibal  and  Caesar. 

History  in  reality  is  a  tissue  of  fables ; — and  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe,  that  any  one  page  in  any  one  his 
tory  extant,  exhibits  the  unmixed  truth.  The  story  is 
disfigured  by  the  vanity  of  the  actors,  the  interested 
misrepresentations  of  spectators,  and  the  fictions,  proba 
ble  or  improbable,  with  which  every  historian  is  instiga 
ted  to  piece  out  his  imperfect  tale.  Human  affairs  are 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  219 

so  entangled ;  motives  are  so  subtle  and  variously  com 
pounded,  that  the  truth  cannot  be  told.  What  reasona 
ble  man  then  can  consign  his  reputation  to  the  Proteus- 
like  uncertainty  of  historical  record  with  any  sanguine- 
ness  of  expectation. 

Suppose  we  are  told,  time  will  clear  up  the  obscurity 
of  evidence,  and  posterity  judge  truly  of  our  merits  and 
demerits.  Suppose  we  are  bid  to  look  forward,  patiently, 
to  the  time  when  party  and  prejudice  shall  be  stripped 
of  their  influence.  There  is  no  such  time.  The  feuds 
and  animosities  of  party  contention  are  eternal.  The 
vulgar,  indeed,  cease  to  interest  themselves  in  a  question, 
when  it  ceases  to  be  generally  discussed.  But,  of  those 
who  curiously  inquire  into  its  merits,  there  is  not  one  in 
a  thousand  that  escape  the  contagion.  He  finds,  by  un 
observed  degrees,  insinuated  into  him,  all  the  exclusive 
attachments,  sometimes  all  the  polemical  fierceness  that 
ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  contemporaries  and  actors. 

A  few  years  before  the  commencement  of  the  Chris 
tian  era,  Cicero  and  Caesar  entered  into  a  paper  war, 
respecting  the  real  worth  of  the  character  of  Cato.  Is 
this  controversy  yet  decided?  Do  there  not  still  exist 
on  the  one  hand,  men  who  look  upon  Cato  with  all  the 
enthusiastic  veneration  expressed  by  Cicero,  and  on  the 
other,  men,  who,  like  Caesar,  treat  him  as  a  hypocritical 
enarler;  and  affirm,  that  he  was  only  indulging  his  pride 
and  ill  humor,  when  he  pretended  to  be  indulging  his 
love  of  virtue. 

Perhaps  there  never  was  a  man  that  loved  fame  so 
much  as  Cicero  himself.  When  he  found  himself  ill 
treated  by  the  asperity  of  Cato  and  impatience  of  Bru 
tus,  when  assailed  with  a  torrent  of  abuse  by  the  par- 


220  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tizans  of  Anthony,  he  also  comforted  himself  that  this 
was  a  transitory  injustice.  While  he  stretched  out  his 
neck  to  the  sword  of  the  assassin,  he  said  within  himself, 
in  a  little  time  the  purity  of  my  motives  will  be  univer 
sally  understood.  Do  we  not  hear,  at  this  hour,  the  cha 
racter  of  this  illustrious  ornament  of  the  human  race, 
defamed  by  every  upstart  school-boy  ?  When  is  there  a 
day  that  passes  over  our  heads  (when  his  name  is  men 
tioned,)  without  a  repetition  of  the  tale  of  his  vain  glo- 
riousness,  his  cowardice,  the  imbecility  of  his  temper, 
and  the  hollowness  of  his  patriotism  ? 

There  is  another  curious  controversy  strikingly  illus 
trative  of  the  present  subject.  What  sort  of  men  were 
the  ancient  Romans  ?  It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that, 
amidst  the  dregs  of  monarchical  government,  great  pains 
should  be  taken  to  dishonour  them,  and  to  bring  them 
down  to  the  miserable  level  of  men  of  modern  times. 
Qjo.e  would  have  thought  that  no  man  could  have  perused 
the  history  of  Rome,  and  the  history  of  England,  without 
seeing  that  in  the  one  was  presented  the  substance  of 
men,  and  in  the  other  the  shadow.  But  no,  the  received 
maxim  now  is,  men  in  all  ages  are  the  same.  And  there 
are  many,  even  among  the  professed  republicans  of  our 
own  country,  that  join  the  cry,  and  affirm  that  the  sup 
posed  elevation  of  the  Roman  character  is  mere  delu 
sion.  This  is  so  extensively  the  case,  that  a  man  diffi 
dent  in  his  opinions,  and  sceptical  in  his  inquiries,  dares 
scarcely  pronounce  how  the  controversy  may  terminate, 
if  indeed  it  shall  have  any  termination.  This  uncer 
tainty,  it  is  illiberal  and  unjust  to  impute  to  the  mere 
perverseness  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  owing,  however 
paradoxical  that  may  seem,  to  the  want  of  facts.  De* 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

cisive  evidence  could  not  fail  to  produce  a  decisive 
effect.  We  should  have  lived  first  with  the  ancient  Ro 
mans,  and  then  with  the  men  of  the  present  day,  to  be 
able  to  institute  a  demonstrative  comparison  between 
them.  This  want  of  facts  is  a  misfortune  much  more 
general  than  is  ordinarily  imagined.  A  man  may  live 
for  years  next  door  to  a  person  of  the  most  generous 
and  admirable  temper,  and  may,  by  the  force  of  preju 
dice,  transform  him  into  a  monster.  A  given  portion  of 
familiar  intercourse  would  render  this  mistake  impossible. 
The  evil,  however,  does  not  stop  here.  It  has  been 
found,  for  example,  that  two  persons  of  opposite  sexes 
may  be  lovers  for  half  their  lives ;  and  afterwards,  a 
month  of  unrestrained  domestic  and  matrimonial  inter 
course,  shall  bring  qualities  to  light  in  each,  that  neither 
previously  suspected.  No  one  man  ever  completely 
understood  the  character  of  any  other  man.  Our  most 
familiar  friends  exaggerate,  perhaps,  some  virtues  in  us. 
But  there  are  others  which  we  know  we  possess,  to 
which  they  are  totally  blind.  For  this  reason,  it  should 
be  laid  down  as  a  maxim,  never  to  take  the  report  of  a 
man's  zealous  and  undoubted  advocate,  against  him.  Let 
every  thing  be  examined,  as  far  as  circumstances  will 
possibly  admit,  before  it  is  assumed  for  true.  All  these 
considerations,  however,  tend  to  check  the  ardour  of 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Macon,  for  fame,  which  is  built  upon 
so  uncertain  a  tenure. 

There  is  another  circumstance  of  considerable  moment 
in  this  subject,  and  that  is  the  fickleness  of  reputation 
and  popularity.  We  hear  one  man  praise  another  to 
day  ;  what  security  does  that  afford  for  his  opinion  a 
twelve-month  hence?  Often  the  changes  are  sudden. 
19* 


222  LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACOIf* 

and  abrupt;  and  he  has  scarcely  put  a  period  to  the 
exuberance  of  his  eulogium,  before  he  passes  to  the  bit 
terness  of  invective.  Consistency  is  one  of  the  virtues 
most  applauded  in  society,  and  as  to  his  reputation  for 
which  every  man  is  most  anxious,  yet  no  quality  is  more 
rare  ;  nor  ought  it  to  be  frequent.  There  is  scarcely  any 
proposition,  as  to  which  a  man  of  an  active  and  reflec 
tive  mind,  may  not  recollect  to  have  changed  his  senti 
ments  at  least  once  in  his  life.  But  though  inconsis 
tency  is  no  serious  imputation,  levity  undoubtly  is.  If 
we  are  right  in  changing  our  opinion,  at  least  we  were 
wrong  in  the  hasty  manner  in  which  we  formally  adopted 
it.  Particularly  in  the  case  of  reputation,  no  man  can, 
without  pain,  realize  as  to  himself,  the  facility  with  which 
partialities  are  discarded,  friendships  dissolved  ;  and  the 
man  who  was  your  warmest  advocate,  subsides  into  in 
difference  or  worse. 

Before  we  take  our  leave  of  this  subject,  it  may  be 
amusing,  perhaps  instructive,  to  some,  to  add  a  few  more 
instances  to  those  already  cited,  of  the  doubtfulness  and 
obscurity  of  historical  fame.  There  is  scarcely  any  con 
troversy  that  has  been  agitated  within  the  last  half  cen 
tury,  which  has  been  distinguished  by  more  fierceness 
of  assertion,  than  that  respecting  Mary.  Queen  of  Scots, 
and  the  English  Elizabeth.  If  we  ask  the  two  first  in 
quisitive  persons  we  meet,  (who  appears  to  be  acquainted 
with  this  subject,)  what  has  became  of  this  controversy  ? 
they  will  each  of  them  tell  us  that  the  question  is  com 
pletely  decided ;  but  one  will  affirm  that  the  issue  is  in 
favour  of  Mary,  and  the  other  of  Elizabeth.  How  shall 
we  determine  between  their  opposite  assertions  ?  A  few 
incidental  points  have  been  cleared  up,  but  the  main 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

question  is  where  it  was.  Was  Mary  accessory  to  the 
murder  of  her  husband  ?  After  his  death,  is  she  to  be 
regarded  as  a  chaste  and  noble-minded  woman  in  the 
hands  of  an  audacious  free-booter,  (Bothwel,)  or  must 
she  be  considered  as  an  abandoned  slave  to  the  grossest 
passions,  and  classed  with  the  Missalinas  and  Julias? 
Was  Elizabeth  incited  to  consent  to  her  death,  from  low 
motives  of  rivalship,  and  jealousy,  or  because  she  con 
ceived  the  public  safety  would  allow  no  longer  delay  ? 
(Was  her  reluctance  to  consent,  real,  or  only  a  well  con 
certed  fiction  ?)  Was  she  a  party  to  the  execrable  in 
trigue  of  which  Davidson  was  a  tool ;  and  were  her 
subsequent  indignation  and  grief  merely  a  scene  that 
she  played,  to  impose  upon  the  understandings  of  man 
kind  ?  All  these  are  questions  that  never  can  be  deter 
mined  by  posterity.  While  some  are  influenced  in  their 
judgment  by  the  talents  of  Elizabeth,  by  the  prosperity 
and  happiness  of  her  reign,  and  by  certain  instances  of 
the  moderation  and  rectitude  of  her  domestic  counsels, 
others  find  themselves  unable  to  devise  terms  of  abhor 
rence  and  infamy  to  express  their  aversion  against  her. 
Such  a  thing  is  fame !  There  are  even  some,  ridiculous 
as  it  may  appear,  that  are  bribed  by  Mary's  personal 
charms,  which  more  than  two  centuries  ago  were  con 
signed  to  putrefaction  and  dust :  and  would  feel  it  an 
imputation  on  their  gallantry  if  they  could  side  with  a 
woman  so  little  attractive  as  Elizabeth,  against  the  most 
accomplished  beauty  of  her  age. 

The  character  of  Charles  the  first  is  in  like  manner 
a  subject  of  eternal  contention ;  and  he  is  treated  as  a 
model  of  intellectual  grace  and  integrity ;  or,  as  frigid, 


224  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

austere  and  perfidious,  according  as  his  judges  shall  hap 
pen  to  be  tories  or  whigs,  monarchical  or  republican. 

Henry  lord  Bolingbroke  was  one  of  the  greatest  orna 
ments  of  the  beginning  of  the  century  before  the  last. 
He  has  been  admired  as  a  statesman,  an  orator,  a  man 
of  letters  and  a  philosopher.  Pope  the  poet,  in  the 
eagerness  of  his  reverence  and  devotion,  foresaw  the 
time  when  his  merits  would  be  universally  acknowledged, 
and  assured  the  world  that  the  "sons"  of  his  personal 
adversaries  would  "blush"  for  the  malignity  and  injus 
tice  of  "their  fathers."  But  Pope,  though  a  poet,  was 
no  prophet.  We  every  day  hear  Bolingbroke  spoken  of 
by  one  man  or  another,  with  as  much  contempt  as  could 
have  been  expressed  by  the  most  rancorous  of  his  poli 
tical  rivals.  Doctor  Johnson  is  a  memorable  instance  in 
support  of  our  position.  Never  have  so  many  volumes 
been  filled  with  the  anecdotes  of  any  individual.  If  the 
character  of  any  man  be  decided  by  a  record  of  facts, 
certainly  his  ought  to  be  decided.  But  the  case  is  other 
wise.  Each  man  has  an  opinion  of  his  own  respecting 
it;  but  if  the  subject  be  started  in  conversation,  it  would 
be  totally  impossible  to  predict  whether  the  favourers  or 
the  enemies  would  prove  the  greater  number,  were  it 
not  that  the  mass  of  mankind  are  generally  ready  to 
combine  against  excellence,  because  we  cannot  ade 
quately  understand  that  of  which  we  have  no  experience 
in  ourselves.  Nor  will  it  be  any  presumption  to  foretel, 
that  unless  the  improvement  of  the  human  species  shall 
prove  rapid  beyond  all  former  example,  the  same  dis 
pute  about  the  character  of  Johnson  will  remain  a  cen 
tury  hence ;  and  posterity  will  be  still  unborn  that  are 
to  pass  an  unanimous  verdict  upon  his  merits. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  225 

Mr.  M aeon  was  too  great  a  historian  not  to  have  been 
acquainted  with  ail  these  examples ;  and  whenever  his 
mind  led  him  to  reflect  upon  this  subject,  not  to  have 
known  that  the  distribution  of  personal  reputation  was 
determined  by  principles,  nine  times  in  ten,  altogether 
capricious  and  absurd.  And  those  who  undertook  to  be 
the  benefactors  of  mankind  from  views  of  this  sort,  were 
too  often  made  in  the  close  of  their  career  to  devour  all 
the  bitterness  of  disappointment,  and  are  ready  to  ex 
claim,  as  Brutus  is  represented  to  have  done,  "  Oh  vir* 
tue,  I  followed  thee  as  a  substantial  good,  but  I  find  thee 
to  be  no  more  than  a  delusive  shadow."  He  knew  also 
that  it  was  common,  however,  for  persons  overwhelmed 
with  this  sort  of  disappointment,  to  console  themselves 
with  an  appeal  to  posterity ;  and  to  observe  that  future 
generations  when  the  venom  of  party  is  subdued,  when 
their  friendship  and  animosities  are  forgotten,  when  mis 
representations  shall  no  longer  disfigure  their  actions, 
will  not  fail  to  do  them  justice.  To  posterity  he  ap 
plied  what  Montaigne  has  remarked  of  antiquity,  "It 
is  an  object  of  a  peculiar  sort;  distance  magnifies  it." 
And  if  we  are  to  judge  from  experience,  it  does  not  ap 
pear  that  that  posterity  upon  which  the  great  men  of  for 
mer  ages  rested  their  hopes,  have  displayed  all  that  vir 
tue,  that  inflexible  soundness  of  judgment  and  marvellous 
perspicuity  of  discernment,  which  were  prognosticated 
of  them,  before  they  came  into  existence. 

He  was  too  well  acquainted  with  the  tangled  skein  of 
human  affairs  and  sentiments,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
not  to  have  known  that  he  who  would  gain,  in  any  valu 
able  sense,  the  suffrage  of  the  world,  must  shew  himself 
in  a  certain  degree,  superior  to  this  suffrage.  He  knew 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

that  the  world  was  imbued  with  a  secret  persuasion  that 
its  opinions  is  too  little  discerning  to  be  worth  the  court 
ing,  and  that  an  habitual  regard  to  this  opinion,  is  a  mo 
tive  that  degrades  the  men  that  submit  to  it,  to  have  suf 
fered  his  conduct  to  have  been  influenced  in  any  essen 
tial  particular,  by  a  consideration  of  it.  His  erect  and 
dignified  virtue,  therefore,  led  him  to  consider  chiefly  the 
intrinsic  and  direct  nature  of  all  his  actions,  and  to  pay 
a  very  subordinate  attention  to  the  accidents  that  might 
attend  them.  His  elevated  temper  induced  him  to  act 
from  his  own  reflections,  and  not  from  the  judgment  of 
others.  He  knew  that  he  that  suffered  himself  to  be 
governed  by  public  opinion,  substituted  the  unsteadiness 
of  the  weathercock,  instead  of  the  firmness  of  wisdom 
snd  justice. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  227 


CHAPTER  XX. 

HAVING  gotten  through  Mr.  Macon's  public  life,  we 
will  now  turn  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  his  domestic 
habits,  or  rather  the  life  which  a  man  leads  at  home, 
from  which  we  can  generally  form  a  better  idea  of  his 
real  character,  than  when  he  appears  abroad  at  levees, 
courts,  and  other  public  places ;  where  it  is  no  more  ex 
pected  he  should  show  his  real  character,  than  it  is  the 
contents  of  his  purse. 

We  have  before  stated,  Mr.  Macon  was  particularly 
attached  to  agricultural  pursuits.  He  was  always  an 
early  riser  at  home ;  arid  if  company  did  not  prevent, 
would  generally  attend  to  seeing  all  his  stock  fed,  and 
his  people  at  their  respective  employments  for  the  day, 
before  he  eat  his  breakfast.  He  supervised  the  business 
of  his  plantation  himself,  when  at  home,  until  age  and 
infirmity  disqualified  him.  He  carried  on  every  thing 
by  system ;  and  his  main  object  appeared  to  be  to  live  by 
rule,  altogether.  He  said  there  was  a  rule  for  every 
thing,  and  the  great  object  of  life  was  to  find  out  what 
these  rules  were,  and  when  discovered  never  to  depart 
from  them.  One  of  his  rules  were  that  nothing  on  his 
plantation  was  to  suffer  for  any  thing  to  eat — his  sym 
pathy  for  an  hungry  dog  and  an  hungry  horse  being  the 
same ;  for  it  was  not  on  account  of  the  value  of  a  thing 
that  it  should  be  well  or  indifferently  treated ;  every  thing 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

was  valuable  after  its  kind.  Hence  he  appeared  more 
anxious  to  live  plentifully  than  to  accumulate  property. 
He  was  very  remarkable  for  his  exercise  of  body; 
believing  our  complexly  organized  bodies,  with  all  their 
senses  and  limbs,  have  been  bestowed  on  us  for  use ;  for 
exercise.  Without  this,  our  fluids  stagnate  ;  our  organs 
become  languid  ;  and  the  body,  a  living  corpse,  dies  long 
before  its  decease  ;  it  perishes  by  a  slow,  miserable,  un 
natural  death.  If  nature,  therefore,  would  secure  us 
the  first  indispensable  foundation  of  happines,  health, 
she  must  bestow  on  us  exercise,  toil,  and  labour,  and 
rather  compel  man  thereby  to  a  state  of  well-being,  than 
leave  him  to  dispense  with  it.  Hence,  as  the  Greeks 
say,  the  gods  sold  every  thing  to  mortals  as  the  price  of 
labor,  not  out  of  envy,  but  from  kindness;  for  the 
greatest  enjoyment  of  existence,  the  sensation  of  active, 
striving  powers,  lies  in  this  very  struggle,  in  this  striv 
ing  after  the  comforts  of  ease.  Human  nature  languishes 
only  in  those  climates,  or  conditions,  in  which  enervat 
ing  idleness,  in  which  voluptuous  indolence  entombs 
the  body  alive,  and  renders  it  a  pallid  carcase,  or  a  bur 
den  to  itself;  whilst  in  other  countries,  in  other  modes 
of  life,  even  in  the  most  severe,  the  most  energetic 
growth,  the  healthiest  and  most  beautiful  symmetry  of 
the  limbs,  prevail.  Nations,  to  whom  we  are  inclined  to 
think  nature  has  played  the  step-mother,  are,  perhaps,  her 
most  favoured  children ;  for  if  she  has  prepared  them  no 
idle  feast  of  pleasing  poisons,  she  has  presented  to  them 
from  the  hard  hand  of  labor  the  cup  of  health,  and  an 
internal  invigorating  vital  warmth.  Children  of  the  rosy 
morn,  they  bloom  to  the  last;  a  frequently  careless 
serenity,  an  internal  sensation  of  well-being,  is  to  them 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  229 

happiness,  is  to  them  the  end  and  enjoyment  of  life ; 
could  any  other,  could  happiness  more  sweet  and  dur 
able  be  conferred  upon  them  ? 

Hence,  the  truths  of  which  every  heart  must  feel,  a 
£ew  lines  may  be  drawn,  which  determine  at  least  many 
doubts  and  mistakes  concerning  the  destination  of  the 
human  species.  How,  for  instance,  can  it  be,  that  man, 
as  we  know  him  here,  should  have  been  formed  for  an 
infinite  improvement  of  his  mental  faculties,  a  progres 
sive  extension  of  his  perceptions  and  actions  ?  Nay, 
that  he  should  have  been  made  for  the  state,  as  the  end 
of  his  species,  and  all  preceding  generations,  properly, 
for  the  last  alone,  which  is  to  be  enthroned  on  the  ruined 
scaffolding  of  the  happiness  of  the  rest  ?  The  sight  of 
our  fellow-creatures,  nay  even  the  experience  of  every 
individual  life,  contradicts  this  plan  attributed  to  creative 
providence.  Neither  our  head  nor  our  heart  is  formed 
for  an  infinitely  increasing  store  of  thoughts  and  feelings ; 
our  hand  is  not  made,  our  life  is  not  calculated  for  it. 
Do  not  our  finest  mental  powers  decay,  as  well  as 
flourish?  Do  they  not  even  fluctuate  with  years  and 
circumstances,  and  relieve  one  another  in  friendly  con 
test,  or  rather  in  a  circular  dance  ?  And  who  has  not 
found  that  an  unlimited  extension  of  his  feelings  en 
feebles,  and  annihilates  them,  while  it  gives  to  the  air 
in  loose  flocks  what  should  have  formed  the  cord  of  love, 
or  clouds  the  eyes  of  others  with  its  ashes  ?  As  it  is 
impossible  that  we  can  love  others  more  than  ourselves, 
or  in  a  different  way  ;  for  we  love  them  only  as  part  of 
ourselves,  or  rather  ourselves  in  them ;  that  mind  is 
happy  which,  like  a  superior  spirit,  embraces  much 


20 


230  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

with  the  sphere  of  its  activity,  and  in  restless  activity 
deems  it  a  part  of  itself;  but  miserable  is  that,  the  feel 
ings  of  which,  drowned  in  words  and  thoughts,  are  use 
ful  neither  to  itself  rior  others.  The  savage,  who  loves 
himself,  his  wife  and  child  with  quiet  joy,  and  glows 
with  limited  activity  for  his  tribe,  as  for  his  own  life,  is 
a  more  real  being  than  that  cultivated  shadow,  who  is 
enraptured  with  the  love  of  the  shades  of  his  whole 
species,  that  is  of  a  name.  The  savage  has  room  in  his 
poor  hut  for  every  stranger,  whom  he  receives  as  his 
brother,  with  calm  benevolence,  and  asks  not  once^ 
whence  he  comes ;  whilst  the  deluged  heart  of  the 
idle  cosmopolite  is  a  hut  for  no  one.  See  we  not,  then, 
that  nature  has  done  all  she  could,  not  to  diffuse,  but  to 
circumscribe  us,  and  accustom  us  to  the  sphere  of  our 
lives  ?  Our  senses  and  our  powers  have  their  measure. 
The  hours  of  our  days  and  lives  take  hands  only  in  rota 
tion,  while  those  that  come  relieve  those  that  depart.  It 
is  a  trick  of  the  fancy,  when  the  old  man  still  dreams 
that  he  is  a  youth.  Is  that  concupiscence  of  the  mind, 
which,  forerunning  even  desire,  is  momentarily  chang* 
hig  to  disgust,  the  pleasure  of  paradise  ?  Is  it  not  rather 
the  hell  of  Tantulus,  the  bottomless  buckets  of  the 
vainly  labouring  Daniads  ?  The  sole  art  below  of  man, 
is  moderation.  Joy,  the  child  of  Heaven,  for  who  he 
pants,  is  around  him,  is  in  him;  the  daughter  of  tempe 
rance  and  calm  enjoyment,  the  sister  of  content  and 
satisfaction,  with  his  being  in  life  and  death. 

No  where  upon  earth  does  the  rose  of  happiness  blos 
som,  without  thorns.  Yet  every  where  the  happiness  of 
life  consists  not  in  a  tumultuous  crowd  of  thought  and 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  231 

feeling,  but  in  their  relation  to  the  actual  internal  enjoy 
ment  of  our  existence,  and  what  we  reckon  as  part  of 
our  existence.  We  should  not  think,  therefore,  that  a 
premature  disproportionate  refinement  or  cultivation  is 
happiness ;  that  the  dead  nomenclature  of  all  the  scien 
ces,  the  holiday  use  of  all  the  arts,  can  secure  to  a  living 
being  the  science  of  life.  The  feeling  of  happiness  is 
not  acquired  from  words  learned  by  rote,  or  a  knowledge 
of  the  arts.  A  head  stuffed  with  knowledge,  even  of 
golden  knowledge,  oppresses  the  body,  straitens  the 
breast,  dims  the  eye,  and  is  a  morbid  burden  to  the  life 
of  him  who  bears  it.  The  more  we  divide  our  mental 
powers  by  refinement,  the  more  the  inactive  powers  de 
cay  ;  stretched  on  the  scaffold  of  art,  our  limbs  and 
faculties  wither  while  displayed,  with  ostentation.  The 
blessing  of  health  arises  only  from  the  use  of  the  whole 
mind,  and  of  its  active  powers  in  particular.  Expe 
rience  teaches  us,  that  every  refinement  does  not  pro 
mote  happiness ;  as  many  instruments  become  unfit  for 
use,  by  their  very  delicacy.  Contemplation,  for  instance, 
can  form  the  pleasure  only  of  a  few  idle  men ;  and  to 
them,  like  opinion  to  the  asiatics,  it  is  frequently  an  ener 
vating,  consuming,  stupifying,  visionary  pleasure.  The 
waking,  healthy  use  of  the  senses,  an  understanding  em 
ployed  about  the  real  concerns  of  life,  vigilant  attention, 
accompanied  with  active  recollection,  quick  determina 
tion,  and  happy  effect,  alone  constitute  what  we  call 
presence  of  mind,  real  mental  vigour,  which  repays  it 
self  with  the  consciousness  of  a  present  active  power, 
with  happiness  and  joy. 

It  was  this  healthy  use  of  the  senses  and  employment 
of  the  understanding   about  the  real  concerns  of  life, 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

which  constituted  Mr.  Macon,  whilst  at  home,  one  of 
the  happiest  of  mortals.  Seeking  to  acquire  and  main 
tain  health  of  body,  and  soundness  of  mind,  the  happi 
ness  of  his  house,  and  his  heart,  by  his  own  industry 
and  attention  to  his  business,  there  was  but  few  intervals 
for  the  intrusions  of  those  wild  vagaries  and  useless 
speculations,  which  so  frequently  disturb  the  repose  of 
the  indolent  and  contemplative. 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MAOON.  233 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

IT  is  an  erroneous  system  of  morality  which  would 
teach  us,  that  "we  judge  not,  lest  we  should  be  judged, 
and  that  we  speak  evil  of  no  man."  Falsehood  is  vice, 
whether  it  be  uttered  to  a  man's  commendation  or  cen 
sure  ;  and  to  suppress  that  which  is  true,  is  to  be  regard 
ed  as  a  species  of  falsehood.  We  ought  not  to  desire 
for  ourselves  not  to  be  judged,  but  that  we  may  not  be 
judged  unjustly;  and  the  like  equal  measure  we  ought 
to  deal  to  others.  We  feel  no  exultation  in  that  man's 
appplause  who  is  not  endowed  with  a  republican  bold 
ness  to  censure.  Frankness  is,  perhaps,  the  first  of  vir 
tues  ;  or,  at  least,  is  that,  without  which,  virtue  of  a  man 
ly  and  liberal  dimension,  cannot  exist.  To  give  our 
thoughts  their  genuine  and  appropriate  language,  is  one 
of  the  most  wholesome  exercises  in  which  we  can  be  en 
gaged.  Without  this  exercise,  it  is  scarcely  possible  that 
we  should  learn  to  think  with  precision  and  correctness. 
It  teaches  us  to  review  our  thoughts ;  to  blush  for  their 
obsurdity,  their  groundless  singularities,  and  their  exag 
geration.  It  ripens,  what  at  first  was  merely  opinion, 
into  sj'stem  and  science.  The  fault  for  the  most  part, 
when  we  speak  of  the  merits  of  our  neighbor,  is  not  that 
we  say  what  we  think,  but  for  want  of  practice  and 
skill,  we  do  not  say  what  we  think  ;  we  do  not  suit  our 
words  to  the  measure  of  our  sentiments  ;  we  do  not  call 
20* 


234  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACOK. 

our  minds  into  operation  to  compare  our  opinions  with 
the  grounds  of  our  opinions,  and  our  phrases  with  both. 
We  communicate  to  our  hearers  sentiments  that  we  do 
not  entertain.  We  debauch  even  our  own  judgments, 
while  we  speak ;  and  instead  of  analysing,  arranging  and 
fashioning  our  conclusions  as  we  ought,  become  impas 
sioned  by  listening  to  the  sound  of  our  own  voice,  sub 
ject  our  matter  to  our  words,  and  not  the  words  to  the 
matter,  and  talk  ourselves  into  extravagances,  which  we 
did  not  think  of  in  the  outset,  but  which  we  have  not 
afterwards  the  courage  and  candor  to  retract  either  to 
others  or  to  ourselves.  Mr.  Macon's  philosophical  mind 
guarded  him  against  all  such  absurdities.  He  conceived 
his  duty  obliged  him  to  a  certain  conduct  respecting  his 
admonitions  and  advice  towards  his  neighbors ;  and  re 
proached  himself  as  being  guilty  of  an  omission  on  this 
point,  if  he  failed  to  employ  every  means  in  his  power 
for  the  amendment  of  their  errors;  and  would  have  re 
course  for  that  purpose,  as  often  as  occasion  would  jus 
tify,  to  the  most  unreserved  animadversion  upon  their 
propensities  and  conduct.  He  believed  that  a  man  was 
bound  to  form  the  best  judgment  he  was  able,  respect 
ing  every  circumstance  that  fell  under  his  observation. 
What  he  thought,  he  was  bound  to  declare  to  others,  if 
the  occasion  required  it ;  and  if  to  others,  certainly  not 
less  to  the  parties  concerned.  The  worst  consequences, 
through  every  rank  and  department  of  life,  have  arisen 
from  men's  supposing  their  functions,  in  any  case,  to  be 
so  sacred,  that  every  one,  except  the  actual  principal,  was 
bound  to  be  wholly  blind  and  dumb  in  relation  to  them. 
Mr.  Macon's  advice  was  always  administered  with  sim 
plicity,  disinterestedness,  kindness  and  moderation.  He 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  235 

would  advise  moderately,  without  pertinaciousness,  but 
he  would  not  dictate.  He  would  censure  freely  without 
reserve,  but  recommend  to  the  person  censured,  to  act 
by  his  own  deliberations,  and  not  his.  In  short  he  em 
phatically  exercised  a  republican  boldness  in  judging, 
but  he  would  not  be  peremptory  and  imperious  in  pre 
scribing.  He  advised  that  all  men  should  consult  their 
own  reason,  draw  their  own  conclusions,  and  conscien 
tiously  conform  themselves  to  their  own  ideas  of  proprie 
ty  ;  without  this,  they  could  be  neither  active  nor  con 
siderate,  nor  resolute,  nor  generous. 

The  duty  which  leads  us  to  seek  the  reformation  of 
our  friend  or  neighbor,  whenever  we  perceive  an  imper 
fection  that  requires  to  be  removed,  is  the  highest  duty 
of  friendship,  because  it  is  a  duty  that  has  for  its  object 
the  highest  good  which  it  is  in  our  power  to  confer ;  and 
he  who  refrains  from  the  necessary  endeavor,  because 
he  fears  to  give  pain  to  one  whom  he  loves,  is  guilty  of 
the  same  weakness  which,  in  a  case  of  bodily  accident 
or  disease,  would  withhold  the  salutary  potion,  because  it 
is  nauseous ;  or  the  surgical  operation  which  is  to  preserve 
life,  and  preserve  it  with  comfort,  because  the  use  of  the 
instrument,  which  is  to  be  attended  with  relief  and  hap 
piness,  implies  a  little  momentary  addition  of  suffering. 
To  abstain,  therefore,  from  every  effort  of  this  sort,  on 
account  of  a  mere  fear  of  offending,  is  from  the  selfish 
ness  of  the  motive,  a  still  greater  breach  of  duty,  and  al 
most,  too,  a  still  greater  weakness.  He,  whom  we  truly 
offend,  by  such  admonitions  as  friendship  dictates;  admo 
nitions  of  which  the  chief  authority  is  sought  in  the  very 
excellence  of  him  whom  we  wish  to  make  still  more  ex 
cellent,  is  not  worthy  of  the  friendship  which  we  have 


236  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

wasted  on  him ;  and  if  we  thus  lose  his  friendship,  we  are 
delivered  from  one  who  could  not  be  sincere  in  his  past 
professions  of  regard,  and  whose  treachery,  therefore,  we 
might  afterwards  have  had  reason  to  lament.  If  he  be 
worthy  of  us,  he  will  not  love  us  less,  but  love  us  more  ; 
he  will  feel  that  we  have  done  that  which  it  was  our 
duty  to  do;  and  we  shall  have  the  double  gratification  of 
witnessing  the  amendment  which  we  desired,  and  of 
knowing  that  we  have  contributed  to  an  effect,  which 
was  almost  like  the  removal  of  a  vice,  from  ourselves,  or 
a  virtue  added  to  our  own  character. 

Mr.  Macon's  manner,  in  administering  advice  to  his 
neighbor  or  friend,  was  not  that,  if  a  man  conducted  him 
self  in  a  manner  he  disapproved,  instantly  to  express  his 
contempt  towards  him,  personally,  and  in  the  most  un- 
quallified  terms.  For  then  the  question  might  be  asked, 
said  he,  who  made  us  a  judge  over  him  ?  From  what 
source  did  we  derive  our  patent  of  infallibility  ?  Tole 
ration,  and  freedom  of  opinion,  said  he,  is  scarcely  worth 
accepting,  if,  when  our  neighbour  differs  from  us,  we  do 
not  indeed  burn  him,  but  we  take  every  occasion  to  in 
sult  him.  There  could  be  no  freedom  of  opinion,  if 
every  one  conducted  himself  thus.  Toleration  in  its 
full  import,  requires,  not  only  that  there  shall  be  no  laws 
to  restrain  opinion,  but  that  forbearance  and  liberality 
shall  be  moulded  in  the  manners  of  the  community. 
Correcting  our  neighbour  or  friend  as  often  as  we  see 
them  going  astray,  Mr.  Macon  believed  to  be  one  of  our 
chief  duties  in  life ;  and  every  effort  which  it  is  in  our 
power  to  use  for  this  emendation,  he  employed  sedu 
lously,  anxiously,  urgently,  but  with  all  the  tenderness 
which  such  efforts  admit.  Therefore,  if  we  perceive 


LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON.  237 

our  neighbour  mistaking  in  some  important-question,  we 
may  pity  him ;  a  madman  only  would  be  filled  with  the 
bitterness  of  personal  resentment.  To  reclaim  him,  it 
must  be  done  with  kindness  and  love,  without  having 
recourse  to  measures  of  insolence  and  contumely.  Loud 
censure,  and  the  "slow  moving  finger  of  scorn,"  drive 
many  men  to  despair,  who  might  have  been  amended, 
perhaps  rendered  the  ornaments  of  their  species.  Why 
is  admonition  so  frequently  unpalatable  ?  Not  so  much, 
because  few  people  know  how  to  take  advice,  as  because 
still  fewer  know  how  to  give  it.  The  monitor  usually 
assumes  the  tone  of  a  master.  At  this  usurpation,  hu 
man  independence  reasonably  spurns.  The  countenance 
composed  to  unusual  gravity,  and  a  peculiar  solemnity 
of  voice  fitted  to  the  occasion,  cannot  fail  to  alarm  and 
revolt  every  man  of  an  ingenious  temper.  Why  this 
parade,  this  triumphal  entry,  as  if  into  a  conquered  pro 
vince  ?  Why  treat  a  moral  or  practical  truth,  in  a  way 
so  different  from  truths  of  any  other  kind  ?  There  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  between  us  and  the  person  whose 
conduct  we  apprehend  to  be  imprudent  or  erroneous. 
Why  not  discuss  this  difference  upon  equal  terms  ? 
Why  not  suppose  that  we  may  be  ignorant  of  a  part  of 
the  question  ?  Why  not,  as  is  reasonable,  offer  what  oc 
curs  to  us,  rather  as  a  hint  for  inquiry,  than  as  a  decision 
emanating  from  an  oracle  of  truth!  Why  not  trust  ra 
ther  to  the  reason  of  the  case,  than  to  the  arts  or  the 
passion  with  which  we  may  enforce  it. 

Many  inconveniences  arise  from  the  prevailing  prac 
tice  of  insincerity  in  speaking  of  a  man's  character,  when 
he  is  absent  and  present,  in  the  same  terms.  Yet  every 
man  seems  to  have  a  just  right  to  know  what  his  neigh- 


238 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


hours  think,  or  to  use  a  more  appropriate  phrase,  how 
they  feel  respecting  him.  The  knowledge  of  this  opin 
ion  is  of  high  importance,  both  for  correction  and  confi 
dence.  Ignorance  in  this  respect,  corrupts  the  very 
vitals  of  human  intercourse.  Mr.  Macon,  as  all  wise 
men  should  do,  would  speak  of  the  qualities  of  his 
neighbour  as  he  found  them ;  "  nothing  extenuate,  nor 
set  down  aught  in  malice."  He  would  not,  even  in  his 
neighbour's  absence,  indulge  in  sarcastic  remarks  at  his 
expense ;  he  would  not  exaggerate  his  errors ;  he  would 
not  speak  of  them  with  anger  and  invective.  His  neigh 
bours  all  knowing  this  to  be  his  character,  would  bear  to 
be  told  of  their  errors  by  him,  in  plain  terms,  without 
softening  or  circumlocution.  So  that  the  language  he 
used,  when  he  spoke  to  them,  if  present;  or  of  them,  if 
t^  was  reduced  to  one  common  standard. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

WE  have  mentioned,  elsewhere,  the  courtship  and 
marriage  of  Mr.  Macon  with  Miss  Plummer.  The  duties 
involved  in  conjugal  obligations,  the  complication  of 
which  it  is  less  easy  for  the  ethical  inquirer  to  state  and 
define,  than  for  the  heart  which  feels  affection,  to  exer 
cise  them  all  with  instant  readiness,  we  have  mentioned 
also  were  faithfully  discharged  by  him,  during  the  life 
time  of  his  consort.  He  who  loves  sincerely  the  object 
of  any  one  of  those  relations,  which  bind  us  together  in 
amity,  and  who  is  wise  enough  to  discern  the  difference 
of  conferring  a  momentary  gratification,  which  may  pro 
duce  more  misery  than  happiness,  and  of  conferring  that 
which  is  not  merely  present  happiness,  but  a  source  of 
future  enjoyment,  needs  no  rule  of  duty,  as  far  at  least 
as  relates  to  that  single  individual,  for  the  direction  of  a 
conduct  of  which  love  itself,  unaided  by  any  other 
guidance,  will  be  a  quick  and  vigilant  director. 

The  relation  between  man  and  wife,  was  a  subject  up 
on  which  Mr.  Macon  frequently  conversed  freely  and 
unreservedly.  He  believed  that  the  husband  should  al 
ways  have,  as  his  great  object  and  rule  of  conduct,  the 
happiness  of  his  wife.  Of  that  happiness,  the  confidence 
in  his  affection  is  the  chief  element ;  and  the  proofs  of 
this  affection  on  his  part,  therefore,  constitute  his  chief 
duty, — an  affection  that  is  not  lavish  of  caresses  only,  as 


240  LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

if  these  were  the  only  demonstrations  of  love,  but  of 
that  respect  which  distinguishes  love  as  a  principle,  from 
that  brief  passion  which  assumes,  and  only  assumes  the 
name, — a  respect  which  consults  the  judgment,  as  well 
as  the  wishes  of  the  object  beloved, — who  considers  her, 
who  is  worthy  of  being  taken  to  the  heart,  as  worthy  of 
being  admitted  to  all  the  counsels  of  the  heart.  There 
fore,  if  there  be  any  delights,  of  which  the  husband  feels 
the  value  as  essential  to  his  own  happiness;  for  instance, 
if  he  considers  the  improvement  of  his  own  understand 
ing,  and  the  cultivation  of  his  own  taste,  as  a  duty,  and 
one  of  the  most  delightful  duties  of  an  intellectual  being, 
he  will  not  consider  it  as  a  duty  or  a  delight  that  belong 
only  to  man,  but  will  feel  it  more  delightful,  as  there  is 
now  another  soul  that  may  share  with  him  all  the  plea 
sure  of  the  progress.  In  the  general  circumstances  of 
conjugal  life,  there  should  be  absolute  equality,  because 
where  love  should  be  equal,  there  should  be  that  equal 
desire  of  conferring  happiness,  which  is  implied  in 
equality  of  love ;  and  he,  who,  from  the  mere  wish  of 
gratifying  his  feeling  of  superiority,  can  wilfully  thwart 
a  wish  of  her,  whose  wishes,  where  they  do  not  lead  to 
any  moral  or  prudential  impropriety,  should  be  to  him 
like  his  own,  or  even  dearer  than  his  own,  if  they  did 
not  truly  become  his  wishes,  when  known  to  be  hers, 
would  deserve  no  slight  punishment,  as  the  violator  of 
one  of  the  principal  obligations  of  an  husband. 

Mr.  Macon  has  been  frequently  heard  to  observe,  that 
the  great  evil  in  matrimonial  life,  is  the  cessation  of  those 
cares,  which  were  regarded  as  necessary  for  obtaining 
love,  but  which  are  unfortunately  conceived  to  be  less 
necessary,  when  love  is  once  obtained.  There  can  be 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL   MACON.  241 

nothing  truer  than  this  remark.  The  carelessness  of  a 
husband  are  not  less  severely  felt,  however,  because 
they  are  the  neglects  of  one  whose  attentions  are 
more  valuable,  as  he  who  offers  them  is  more  valued ; 
and  frequent  inattentions,  by  producing  frequent  displea 
sure,  may  at  last,  though  they  do  not  destroy  love,  wholly, 
destroy  the  best  happiness  of  love.  No  advice  can  be 
more  salutary  for  happiness,  than  that  which  recommends 
an  equal  attention  to  please,  and  an  anxiety  not  to  offend, 
after  twenty  years  of  wedlock,  as  when  it  was  the  ob 
ject  of  the  lover  to  awake  the  passion,  on  which  he  con 
ceived  every  enjoyment  of  his  life  to  depend.  For  it 
is  said  as  much  can  be  gained  in  preserving  a  heart,  as 
in  conquering  one. 

The  cessation  of  these  cares  would  be,  of  itself,  no 
slight  evil,  even  though  love  had  originally  been  less 
profuse  of  them  than  it  usually  is,  in  the  extravagance 
of  an  unreflecting  passion.  She  who  has  been  worship 
ped  as  a  goddess,  must  feel  doubly  the  insult  of  the  ne* 
gleet,  which  afterwards  disdains  to  bestow  on  her  the 
common  honour  that  is  paid  to  woman;  and  with  the 
ordinary  passions  of  a  human  being,  it  will  be  diificult 
for  her  to  retain,  I  will  not  say  love,  for  that  is  abandon* 
ed, — but  the  decorous  and  dignified  semblance  of  love, 
for  him  who  has  cared  little  for  the  reality  of  it.  It  is 
not  easy  to  say  by  how  insensible  a  transition,  in  many 
cases,  this  conjugal  resentment,  or  forced  indifference, 
passes  into  conjugal  infidelity ;  though  it  is  easy  in  such 
a  case,  to  determine  to  whom  the  greater  portion  of  the 
guilt  is  to  be  ascribed. 

There  are  duties  of  marriage,  it  is  said,  which  begin 
before  the  marriage  itself,  in  the  provision  that  is  mads 
21 


242  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

for  matrimonial  virtue  and  happiness ;  and  he  who  ne 
glects  the  means  of  virtuous  love,  in  a  state  of  which, 
virtuous  love  is  to  be  the  principal  charm,  is  far  more  in 
considerate,  and  far  more  guilty,  than  the  heedless  pro 
ducer  of  misery,  who  forms  a  matrimonial  connexion, 
without  the  prospect  of  any  means  of  subsistence,  for 
one  who  is  to  exist  with  him,  only  to  suffer  with  him  in 
indigence,  and  for  the  little  sufferers  who  are  afterwards 
to  make  indigence  still  more  painfully  felt. 

If,  however,  it  be  necessary  for  man  to  be  careful  to 
whom  he  engages  himself  by  a  vow  so  solemn,  it  is 
surely  not  less  necessary  for  the  gentler  tenderness  of 
woman.  She,  too,  has  duties  to  fulfil,  that  depend  on 
love,  or  at  least  that  can  be  sweetened  only  by  love,  and 
when  she  engages  to  perform  them  where  love  is  not 
felt,  she  is  little  aware  of  the  precariousness  of  such  a 
pledge,  and  of  the  perils  to  which  she  is  exposing  her 
self.  It  is  truly  painful,  then,  to  see,  in  the  intercourse 
of  the  world,  how  seldom  affection  is  considered  as  a  ne 
cessary  matrimonial  preliminary— at  least,  in  one  of  the 
parties,  and  in  the  one  to  whom  it  is  more  necessary ; 
and  how  much  quicker  the  judgment  of  fathers,  mothers, 
friends,  is  to  estimate  the  wealth  or  the  worldly  dignity, 
than  the  wisdom  or  the  virtue,  which  they  present  as  a 
fit  offering  to  her,  whom  wealth  and  worldly  dignity  may 
render  only  weaker  and  more  miserable,  but  whom  wis 
dom  might  counsel,  and  virtue  cherish.  It  is  painful  to 
see  one  who  has  in  other  respects,  perhaps,  many  moral 
excellences,  consent  as  an  accomplice  in  this  fraud,  to 
forego  the  moral  delicacy  which  condemns  the  apparent 
sale  of  affection,  that  is  not  to  be  sold, — rejoice  in  the 
splendid  sacrifice  which  is  thus  made  for  her  peace,— 
consign  her  person  to  one  whom  she  despises,  with  the 


LIFE   OF   NATHANIEL    MACON.  243 

same  indifference  as  she  consigns  her  hand;  a  prostitute 
for  gold,  not  less  truly,  because  the  prostitution  is  to  be 
for  life ;  and  not  less  criminally  a  prostitute,  because  to 
the  guilt  of  a  mockery  of  tenderness,  that  wishes  to  de 
ceive  man,  and  the  still  greater  guilt  of  a  perjury,  that 
in  vows  which  the  heart  belies,  would  wish  to  deceive 
God,  on  whom  it  calls  to  sanction  the  deceit. 

When  marriages  are  thus  formed,  it  is  not  for  the  suf 
ferer  to  complain,  if  she  find  that  she  has  acquired  a  few 
more  trappings  of  wealth,  but  not  a  husband.  She  has 
her  house,  her  carriage,  and  the  living  machines,  that 
are  paid  to  wait  around  her  and  obey  her;  she  takes 
rank  in  public  spectacles,  and  presides  in  her  own  man 
sion,  in  spectacles  as  magnificent;  she  has  obtained  all 
she  wished  to  obtain.  And  the  affection  and  happiness, 
which  she  scorned,  she  must  leave  to  those  who  sought 
them. 

"There  is  a  place  on  the  earth,"  it  is  said  by  St. 
Lambert,  "  where  pure  joys  are  unknown — from  which 
politeness  is  banished,  and  has  given  place,  to  selfishness, 
contradiction,  and  half-veiled  insults.  Remorse  and  in 
quietude,  like  furies,  that  are  never  weary  of  assailing, 
torment  the  inhabitants.  This  place  is  the  house  of  a 
wedded  pair,  who  have  no  mutual  love,  nor  even  es 
teem  !  And  to  conclude  this  chapter,  if  there  was  a 
place  upon  earth,  to  which  vice  had  no  entrance, — where 
the  gloomy  passions  had  no  empire, — where  pleasure  and 
innocence  lived  constantly  together, — where  cares  and 
labours  were  delightful, — where  every  pain  was  forgotten 
iia  reciprocal  tenderness, — where  there  was  an  equal  en 
joyment  of  the  past,  the  present  and  the  future,  it  was 
in  the  house  of  Mr.  Macon,  during  the  life-time  of  his 
wife. 


244  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL   MACQN. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

AFTER  the  death  of  his  wife,  the  raising  and  educa 
tion  of  his  two  little  daughters,  of  which  we  have  also 
spoken,  appeared  to  engross  Mr.  Macon's  principal  at 
tention  and  care.  The  duties  of  the  parent,  in  all  their 
relations  to  the  beings  to  whom  he  has  given  existence, 
and  the  nature  of  the  primary  obligation,  of  which  the 
children  are  the  objects  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  breathe, 
and  which  death  only  can  dissolve,  was  fully  consider 
ed  by  him.  The  duty  of  exercising  with  kindness  the 
parental  power;  of  imposing  no  restraint  which  has  not 
for  its  object  some  good,  greater  than  the  temporary  evil 
of  the  restraint  himself;  of  making  the  necessary  obe 
dience  of  the  children  in  this  way,  not  so  much  a  duty 
as  a  delight, — and  of  thus  preparing  them,  in  other  years, 
the  grateful  and  tender  friends  of  a  parent  whose  author 
ity,  even  in  its  most  rigid  exactions,  they  have  felt  only 
as  the  watchful  tenderness  of  a  friendship,  that  was  rigid 
in  withholding  only  what  it  would  have  been  dangerous 
to  grant,  was  also  well  understood  and  practised  by  him. 
Mr.  Macon,  in  the  discharge  of  these  parental  duties, 
•was  not  the  father  who  had  no  voice  but  that  of  stern 
command,  the  tyrant  to  all  the  extent  of  his  power,  who 
excited  only  such  feelings  as  tyrants  excite;  a  ready 
obedience,  perhaps,  but  an  obedience  that  is  the  trimb- 
ling  part  of  a  slave ;  not  the  still  quicker  fondness  of  an 


LIFE   OP   NATHANIEL    MACON.  245 

ever  ready  love  ;  and  that  will  be  withheld  in  the  very 
instant  in  which  the  terror  has  lost  its  dominion.  He 
knew  that  it  was  impossible  to  have,  in  a  single  indivi 
dual,  both  a  slave  and  a  dutiful  child ;  and  he  who 
chooses  rather  to  have  a  slave  must  not  expect  that  filial 
fondness,  which  is  no  part  of  the  moral  nature  of  a  bond 
man.  He  knew  that  such  a  one  in  thinking  he  increases 
his  authority,  he  truly  diminishes  it ;  for  more  than  half 
the  authority  of  the  parent  is  in  the  love  which  he  ex 
cites  ;  in  that  zeal  to  obey,  which  is  scarcely  felt  as  obe 
dience,  when  a  wish  is  expressed,  and  in  that  ready  im 
itation  of  the  virtues  that  are  loved,  which  does  not  re 
quire  even  the  expression  of  a  wish}  but  without  a  com 
mand,  becomes  all  which  a  virtuous  parent  could  have 
commanded.  With  these  views  of  the  duties  of  a  parent, 
Mr.  Macon  entered  upon  the  rearing  and  educating  of 
his  two  daughters,  after  the  loss  of  their  mother.  And 
it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  but  what  they  received  that 
kind  of  nurture  and  education  which  was  best  suited  to 
their  condition  in  life,  and  the  society  in  which  they 
were  to  move  when  they  arrived  to  years  of  maturity. 

That  such  an  education  is  to  be  given  in  every  case, 
as  is  suitable  to  the  pecuniary  circumstances  of  the  pa 
rents,  and  to  the  rank  which  the  child  may  be  expected 
afterwards  to  fill,  there  is  probably  no  one  who  would 
deny, — however  much  individuals  may  differ  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  term  education.  In  the  lowest  ranks  of 
life  ;  at  least  in  far  the  greater  part  even  of  the  civilised 
world,  it  means  nothing  more  than  the  training  of  the 
hands  to  a  certain  species  of  motion,  which  forms  one 
of  the  sub-divisions  of  mechanical  industry.  In  the 
higher  ranks,  it  implies,  in  like  manner,  a  certain  train^ 
21* 


246  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

ing  of  the  limbs  to  series  of  motions,  which  are,  how 
ever,  not  motions  of  mere  utility,  like  those  of  the  arti 
san,  but  of  grace,— and  in  addition  to  those  bodily  move 
ments,  a  training  of  the  mind  to  a  due  command  of  cer 
tain  graceful  forms  of  expression — to  which,  in  a  few 
happier  cases,  is  added  the  knowledge,  more  or  less  ex 
tensive  and  accurate,  of  the  most  striking  truths  of 
science.  When  all  this  is  performed,  education  is 
thought  to  be  complete.  To  express  this  completion,  by 
the  strongest  possible  word,  the  individual  is  said  to  be 
accomplished;  and  if  graceful  motions  of  the  limbs,  and 
motions  of  the  tongue,  in  well-turned  phrases  of  courte 
ous  elegance, — and  a  knowledge  of  some  of  the  bril 
liant  expressions  of  poets,  and  wits,  and  orators  of  dif 
ferent  countries, — of  a  certain  number  of  the  qualities 
of  the  masses  or  atoms  which  surround  him,  were  suffi 
cient  to  render  man  what  God  intended  him  to  be,  the 
parent  who  had  taken  every  necessary  care  for  adorning 
his  child  with  the  bodily  and  mental  graces,  might  truly 
exult  in  the  consciousness,  that  he  had  done  his  part  to 
the  generation  which  was  to  succeed  by  accomplishing, 
at  least  one  individual,  for  the  noble  duties  which  he 
had  to  perform  in  it.  But  if  the  duties  which  man 
has  to  perform,  whatever  ornament  they  may  receive 
from  the  corporeal  and  intellectual  graces  that  may  flow 
around  them,  imply  the  operation  of  principles  of  ac 
tion  of  a  different  kind — if  it  is  in  the  heart  that  we  are 
to  seek  the  source  of  the  feelings,  which  are  our  noblest 
distinction, — with  which,  we  are  what  even  God  may 
almost  approve,  and  without  which  we  are  worthy  of  the 
condemnation  even  of  beings  frail  and  guilty  as  ourselves ; 
and  if  the  heart  require  to  be  protected  from  vice,  with 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  247 

far  more  care  than  the  understanding  itself,  fallible  as  it 
is,  to  be  protected  from  error, — can  he,  indeed,  lay  claim 
to  the  praise  of  having  discharged  the  parental  office  of 
education,  who  has  left  the  heart  to  its  own  passions, 
while  he  has  contented  himself  with  furnishing  to  those 
passions,  the  means  of  being  more  extensively  baneful  to 
the  world,  than  with  less  accomplished  selfishness,  they 
could  have  been. 

How  many  parents  do  we  see,  who,  after  teaching 
their  children,  by  example,  every  thing  which  is  licen 
tious  in  manners,  and  lavishing  on  them  the  means 
of  similar  licentiousness,  are  rigid  only  in  one  point, — in 
the  strictness  of  that  intellectual  discipline,  which  may 
prepare  them  for  the  worldly  stations,  to  which  the  pa 
rental  ambition  has  been  unceasingly  looking  for  them, 
before  the  filial  ambition  was  rendered  sufficiently  in 
tent  of  itself!  How  many  who  allow  to  the  vices  of  the 
day,  full  liberty,  if  the  lesson  of  the  day  be  duly  medi 
tated  ;  and  who  are  content  that  those  whose  education 
they  direct,  should  be  knaves  and  sensualists,  if  they 
only  be  fitted,  by  intellectual  culture,  to  be  the  leaders 
of  other  knaves,  and  the  acquirers  of  wealth,  that  may 
render  sensuality  more  delicately  luxurious !  To  such 
persons,  the  mind  of  the  little  creature,  whom  they  are 
training  to  worldly  stations,  for  worldly  purposes,  is  an 
object  of  interest  only  as  that  without  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  arrive  at  the  dignities  expected.  It  is 
a  necessary  instrument  for  becoming  rich  and  powerful ; 
and  if  he  could  become  powerful  and  rich,  and  envied 
without  a  soul, — exhibit  the  same  spectacle  of  magnifi 
cent  luxury,  and  be  capable  of  adding  to  the  means  of 
present  pomp,  what  might  furnish  out  a  luxury  still  more 


248  LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON. 

magnificent, — they  would  scarcely  feel  that  he  was  a 
being  less  noble  than  now.  In  what  they  term  education, 
they  have  never  once  thought,  that  the  virtues  were  to 
be  included  as  objects ;  and  they  would  truly  feel  some 
thing  very  like  astonishment,  if  they  were  told,  that  the 
first  and  most  essential  part  of  the  process  of  educating 
the  moral  being,  whom  heaven  had  consigned  to  their 
charge,  was  yet  to  be  begun,  in  the  abandonment  of 
their  own  vices,  and  the  purification  of  their  own  hearts, 
by  better  feeling  than  those  which  had  corrupted  it, — 
without  which  primary  self-amendment,  the  very  autho 
rity  that  is  implied  in  the  noble  office  which  they  were 
to  exercise,  might  be  a  source,  not  of  good,  but  of  evil, 
to  him  who  was  unfortunately  born  to  be  its  subject. 

Happy  were  the  daughters  of  Nathaniel  Macon, 
that  they  had  a  parent  so  different  in  quality  and  un 
derstanding  from  the  pictures  here  drawn!  Happy 
were  they,  that  they  were  taught  by  this  parent,  at 
an  early  period  of  their  lives,  not  only  by  education, 
but  by  example  also;  the  value  of  truth,  and  the  im 
portance  of  sincerity,  "  all  the  qualities  of  the  heart, 
as  well  as  the  qualities  of  the  head." — So  that  when 
they  became  grown,  those  who  visited  Mr.  Macon's, 
found  two  interesting,  sensible,  unassuming  young  ladies, 
well  qualified  to  converse  upon  any  subject  becoming 
their  sex — modest,  though  not  ashamed,  proud,  but  not 
arrogant — full  of  life,  without  levity, — sufficiently  talka 
tive,  without  loquacity.  And,  in  short,  who  had  been 
brought  up  and  educated  in  such  a  plain  republican 
manner,  that  rendered  them  conscious  that  they  had  no 
superior,  whilst  at  the  same  time  claiming  no  superiority 


LIFE    OF    NATHANIEL    MACON.  249 

over  others.  Thus  accomplished,  (if  this  word  is  not  de 
rogatory  to  their  character,)  to  make  any  gentleman 
suitable  companions  for  life,  it  is  no  wonder  that  they 
were  sought  after  as  uncommon  acquisitions,  by  many  of 
the  young  gentlemen  of  the  surrounding  country,  al 
most  at  the  very  birth  of  their  maturity.  The  eldest 
marrying  Mr.  William  Martin  of  Granville,  the  younger 
Mr.  William  Eaton  of  Warren,  both  gentlemen  of  un 
exceptionable  characters  and  family ;  the  former  of  mo 
derate  fortune,  the  latter  very  wealthy.  Upon  the  mar 
riage  of  Mr.  Macon's  eldest  daughter  with  Mr.  Martin — 
it  is  said,  in  order  to  do  exact  justice  to  both  of  his  daugh 
ters  and  himself  likewise,  he  divided  his  estate  into 
three  equal  parcels  or  shares,  alloting  to  each  daughter 
their  respective  shares,  telling  them  at  the  same  time, 
he  felt  then  as  if  he  had  done  equal  justice  towards 
them  and  himself,  and  that  the  share  or  parcel  which  he 
held,  he  should  consider  as  his  own,  to  dispose  of  as  he 
might  hereafter  think  proper. 

This  singular  act  of  justice  of  Mr.  Macon's,  is  cer 
tainly  deserving  of  imitation  by  all  parents.  The  wants 
of  the  children  are  obviously  equal  in  all ;  and  if  the 
merits  of  all  be  equal,  the  affection  of  the  parent  should 
be  the  same,  and  his  duty  equal  to  all,  who,  with  equal 
wants  and  equal  merits,  are  consigned  to  his  equal  love. 
It  is  vain,  now,  to  look  for  a  justification  of  breaches  of 
this  equal  duty,  to  periods  of  violence,  in  which  it  was 
necessary  for  the  happiness  of  all,  that  inequality  of  dis 
tribution  should  take  place,  that  there  might  be  one  suf 
ficiently  powerful,  to  protect  the  scantier  pittance  of 
the  many.  The  father  of  many  virtuous  children,  may 


250  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 

safely  be  to  all,  what  he  is  to  one ;  and  if  he  lay  aside 
this  equal  character,  and,  sheltering  himself  in  the  for 
ced  manners  of  barbarous  and  tumultuous  ages,  make 
many  poor,  that  he  may  make  one  rich,  he  is  guilty  of  a 
gross  violation  of  his  duties  as  a  parent, — and  the  more 
guilty,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  value  which  he  attaches 
to  the  possession  of  the  wealth  so  unequally  distributed. 
Nor  is  it  only  to  those  whom  he  directly  wills  to  impo 
verish,  that  he  is  guilty  of  a  breach  of  duty ;  he  is  equal 
ly  guilty  of  it,  in  many  cases,  to  the  single  individual 
whom  he  exclusively  enriches, — if  in  estimating  what 
he  confers,  we  consider  the  virtue  and  happiness,  or 
vice  and  misery,  that  may  arise  from  it,  and  not  the 
mere  wealth,  which,  in  itself,  is  nothing.  The  supe 
riority  which  is  thus  bestowed  on  a  single  individual,  is 
a  superiority  that  may,  indeed,  like  every  possession  of 
power,  lead  to  the  exercise  of  corresponding  virtues  ;  to 
the  generous  mind  it  may  present,  as  it  has  often  pre 
sented,  only  wider  occasions  of  generosity ;  yet  beauti 
ful  as  such  examples  may  be,  it  is  not  what  the  general 
circumstances  of  our  nature  authorise  us  to  expect ;  and 
the  power  of  being  thus  generous,  when,  without  that 
dubious  generosity,  those  who  have  been  made  depen 
dent  on  it,  may  suffer,  what  perhaps  it  was  not  intended 
that  they  should  suffer,  is  a  power  of  too  great  peril  to 
human  virtue,  to  be  rashly  imposed  upon  human  weak 
ness.  Therefore  the  duty  of  affording  to  the  child  such 
a  provision  of  the  means  of  worldly  comfort  and  useful 
ness,  as  is  suitable  to  the  circumstances  of  the  parent, 
and  of  affording  this  provision  to  the  different  members 
of  a  family,  not  in  a  manner  which  may  seem  best 


LIFE   OF   NATHANIEL  MACON.  251 

fitted  to  gratify  the  personal  vanity  of  the  provider,  but 
in  the  manner  that  is  best  fitted  to  contribute  to  the  hap 
piness  of  all  who,  with  a  relationship  that  is  precisely 
the  same,  if  their  merits  and  wants  be  equal,  have  a 
moral  claim  to  equal  regard,  in  the  distribution  that  is  to 
provide  for  those  wants. 


252  LIFE    OF   NATHANIEL    MACON. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

AFTER  the  marriage  of  his  two  daughters,  Mr.  Macon 
continued,  as  before,  in  his  public  services  in  congress,  in 
the  winter  and  spring,— and  on  his  return,  in  his  at 
tention  to  his  plantation  in  summer  and  autumn. 

Of  his  public  life,  we  have  sufficiently  spoken, — it  is 
of  his  habits  at  home,  that  we  are  now  acquainting  the 
reader.  We  have  stated  that  he  generally  attended  to 
his  plantation  when  he  was  at  home  himself,  until  he 
was  disqualified  by  age, — but  he  always  employed  some 
of  his  neighbours  on  whom  he  could  depend,  to  supply 
his  place  when  absent.  His  rule  was,  on  the  eve  of  his 
departure  to  Washington,  to  deliver  to  the  person  thus 
employed,  a  memorandum  of  instructions  what  he  was 
to  do,  during  his  absence ;  and  it  was  always  understood 
between  them,  that  he  was  to  be  guided  entirely  by  this 
bill  of  instructions,  and  not  to  depart  from  it  on  any  ac 
count.  A  good  story  is  told  concerning  the  rigid  fidelity 
of  one  of  these  proxies.  He  being  an  old  gentleman,  a 
near  neighbour  of  Mr.  Macon's,  and  one  who  on  account 
of  his  honesty  and  strict  adherence  to  truth,  had  been  em 
ployed  by  Mr.  Macon  for  many  years,  to  the  supervision 
of  his  business  in  his  absence.  The  story  goes,  that  on 
a  certain  occasion,  Mr.  Macon  directed  that  his  flock  of 
sheep  should  be  put  in  a  certain  enclosed  pasture,  and 
there  remain  until  he  returned  from  congress,  the  ensu- 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  253 

ing  spring, — it  so  happened  that  during  this  time,  Mr. 
Eaton,  who  married  Mr.  Macon's  younger  daughter,  pas 
sed  by,  and  discovered  that  the  sheep  were  dying  for 
the  want,  as  he  thought,  of  better  pasturage,  and  directed 
the  old  man  to  turn  them  in  the  woods — the  old  gen* 
tleman  replied,  he  should  do  no  such  thing, — that  Mr. 
Macon  had  directed  when  he  left  home,  that  the  sheep 
should  remain  in  that  place,  until  he  returned  from 
Washington,  and  they  should  remain  there,  if  every  one 
of  them  died,  before  he  would  disobey  his  instructions. 
Never  was  a  man  better  pleased,  it  is  said,  than  Mr.  Ma- 
con,  when  this  story  was  first  told  to  him,  by  Mr.  Eaton, 
at  a  dinner  table,  on  his  return  home  from  congress; 
saying,  on  this  occasion,  that  he  would  much  rather  have 
lost  the  whole  flock  of  sheep,  than  his  confidence  in  the 
fidelity  of  his  old  friend,  Lewis  Shearin ;  for  that  he  had 
tried  Lewis,  in  a  variety  of  instances,  for  many  years, 
and  that  he  had  never  known  him,  in  one  solitary  in* 
stance,  to  betray  his  trust,  to  act  the  least  dishonestly, 
or  to  be  guilty  of  a  falsehood. 

This  anecdote  is  here  introduced,  to  show  to  the  rea 
der  the  great  value  Mr.  Macon  always  placed  upon  men 
of  such  traits  of  character,  as  those  ascribed  to  his  old 
friend  Shearin ;  and  no  matter  in  what  grade  of  society 
he  met  with  them,  he  always  felt  it  his  duty  to  extend 
to  them  the  hands  of  patronage. 

Of  all  the  principles  of  justice,  there  is  none  so  mate 
rial  to  the  moral  rectitude  of  mankind  as  this, — that  no 
man  should  be  distinguished,  but  by  his  personal  merit. 
It  was  Mr.  Macon's  endeavour,  always,  to  reduce  to  prac 
tice,  this  simple  and  sublime  lesson.  He  was  always  in 
favour,  therefore,  when  a  man  had  proved  himself  wor- 


254  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACOJf. 

thy  of  notice  by  certain  qualities  which  he  possessed  in 
an  eminent  degree,  or  when  he  had  by  laudable  perse 
verance  cultivated  talents,  which  needed  only  encour 
agement  to  bring  them  to  maturity,  to  let  that  man  b^ 
honoured. 

Let  us,  for  a  moment,  give  the  reins  to  reflection,  and 
endeavour  accurately  to  conceive,  the  state  of  mankind 
where  such  justice  as  this,  should  form  the  public  and 
general  principle.  In  that  case,  our  moral  feelings  would 
assume  a  firm  and  wholesome  tone,  for  they  would  not 
be  perpetually  counteracted  by  examples  that  weakened 
their  energy,  and  confounded  their  clearness.  Men 
would  be  fearless,  because  they  wrould  know  that  there 
were  no  legal  snares  lying  in  wait  for  their  lives.  They 
would  be  courageous,  because  no  man  would  be  pressed 
to  the  earth,  that  another  might  enjoy  immoderate  luxu 
ry  ;  because  every  one  would  be  secure  of  the  just  reward 
of  his  industry,  and  prize  of  his  exertions.  Jealousy 
and  hatred  would  cease,  for  they  are  the  offspring  of  in 
justice.  Every  man  would  speak  truth  with  his  neigh 
bour,  for  there  would  be  no  temptation  to  falsehood  and 
deceit.  Mind  wrould  find  its  level,  for  there  would  be 
every  thing  to  encourage  and  to  animate.  Science 
would  be  unspeakably  improved,  for  understanding  would 
convert  into  a  real  power,  no  longer  an  ignis  fatuus, 
shining  and  expiring  by  turns,  and  leading  us  into  sloughs 
of  sophistry,  false  science,  and  specious  mistake.  All 
men  would  be  disposed  to  avow  their  dispositions  and 
actions:  none  would  endeavour  to  suppress  the  just  eu- 
logium  of  his  neighbour,  for,  so  long  as  there  were 
tongues  to  record,  the  suppression  would  be  impossible  ; 
none  fear  to  detect  the  misconduct  of  his  neighbour,  for 


LITE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  355 

there  would  be  no  laws  converting  the  sincere  expres 
sion  of  our  convictions  into  a  libel.  Let  us  consider,  for 
a  moment,  what  is  the  amount  of  injustice  included  in 
the  institutions  of  that  aristocracy,  which  have  brought 
about  a  different  order  of  things  in  the  world,  as  it  now 
stands^-  You  are  born,  suppose,  a  Polish  prince,  with  an 
income  of  £300,000  per  annum.  Another  is  born  a 
manerial  serf  or  a  Creolian  negro,  attached  to  the  soil, 
and  transferable  by  barter  or  otherwise,  to  twenty  succes 
sive  lords.  In  vain  shall  be  his  most  generous  and  his 
unwearied  industry,  to  free  himself  from  the  intolerable 
yoke.  Doomed  by  the  law  of  his  birth,  to  wait  at  the 
gates  of  the  palace,  he  must  never  enter,  to  sleep  under 
a  ruined  weather-beaten  roof,  while  his  master  sleeps 
unjier  canopies  of  state,  to  feed  on  putrified  offals,  while 
the  world  is  ransacked  for  delicacies  for  his  master's  ta 
ble ;  to  labour  without  moderation  or  limit  under  a  parch 
ing  sun,  while  his  master  basks  in  perpetual  sloth,  and 
to  be  rewarded  at  last  with  contempt,  reprimand,  stripes 
and  mutilation.  In  fact,  the  case  is  worse  than  this. 
He  could  endure  all  that  injustice  or  caprice  could  inflict, 
provided,  he  possessed  in  the  resource  of  a  firm  mind, 
the  power  of  looking  down  with  pity  on  his  tyrant,  and 
of  knowing  that  he  had  within,  that  sacred  character  of 
truth,  virtue  and  fortitude,  which  all  the  injustice  of  his 
tyrant  could  not  reach.  But  a  slave  and  a  serf  are  con 
demned  to  stupidity  and  vice,  as  well  as  to  calamity. 
And  let  it  be  recollected,  that  for  this  distinction  there  is 
not  the  smallest  foundation  in  the  nature  of  things, — there 
is  no  particular  mould  for  the  constructions  of  lords,  and 
that  they  are  born  neither  better  nor  worse,  than  the 
poorest  of  their  dependents.  It  is  this  structure  of  aris- 


256  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

tocracy,  in  all  its  sanctuaries  and  fragments,  against  which 
such  republicans  as  Mr.  Macon  have  ever  declared  war. 
It  is  alike  unjust,  whether  we  consider  it  in  the  east  of 
India,  villanage  of  the  feudal  system,  or  the  despotism 
of  the  patricians  of  ancient  Rome,  dragging  their  debtors 
into  personal  servitude,  to  expiate  loans  they  could  not 
repay.  Mankind  will  never  be  in  an  eminent  degree 
virtuous  and  happy,  till  each  man  shall  possess  that  por 
tion  of  distinction,  and  no  more,  to  which  he  is  entitled, 
by  his  personal  merits. 

Another  anecdote  concerning  Mr.  Macon,  may  not 
be  amiss  in  this  chapter,  in  order  to 'give  the  reader  an 
idea  of  his  intercourse  with  his  neighbours.  It  appears 
that  one  of  his  neighbours  had  borrowed  of  Mr.  Macon, 
his  cart  and  oxen, — that  of  his  own  accord,  he  had  pro 
mised  Mr.  Macon  to  return  them  at  a  certain  specified 
time, — but  that  it  so  happened  he  failed  to  do  so,  until 
several  days  after  the  time  specified — when  he  returned 
them,  nothing  was  said  by  Mr.  Macon  concerning  this 
blunder  in  his  calculation.  But  on  a  subsequent  occa 
sion,  when  he  had  a  use  for  the  oxen  and  cart  again, 
upon  application  for  them,  he  was  told  by  Mr.  Macon, 
that  he  could  not  have  them, — that  he  could  have  his 
waggon  and  horses,  if  they  would  answer  his  purpose  ; 
but  as  to  the  cart  and  oxen,  he  could  never  borrow  them 
again ;  for  that  he  had  voluntarily  told  him  one  falsehood 
concerning  the  return  of  them,  and  he  should  never  have 
it  in  his  power  to  repeat  it. 

This  story  has  been  frequently  told  by  the  gentleman 
himself,  who  is  the  subject  of  it,  and  who  always  added, 
he  preferred  going  to  Mr.  Macon  for  a  favour,  to  any  man 
he  ever  saw ;  for  it  was  either  granted  or  refused  without 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  257 

any  hesitation ;  and  leaving  it  to  the  borrower,  if  granted, 
to  discharge  his  duty  without  any  troublesome  prescrip 
tions. 

Mr.  Macon's  refusal  on  this  second  application  for  the 
cart  and  oxen,  was  evidently  to  make  the  impression 
upon  his  neighbour,  that  he  considered  a  man  to  be  mor 
ally  bound  to  perform  the  engagements  which  he  has 
undertaken  to  fulfil;  whether  there  be,  or  be  not,  in 
the  individual  with  whom  the  engagement  was  made, 
any  power  of  enforcing  the  fulfilment.  And  though  in 
an  obligation,  where  it  has  been  voluntarily  made,  there 
are  truly  no  limits,  but  the  physicial  power,  and  the  inde 
pendent  morality  of  that  which  is  undertaken  to  be  per 
formed, — but  when  that  which  we  have  engaged  to  do,  is 
truly  within  our  power ;  when  it  is  undertaken  volunta 
rily,  and  when  the  performance  involves  no  violation  of 
our  moral  duty, — it  would  be  a  violation  of  our  duty  not 
to  perform  it,— or  though,  perhaps,  with  more  verbal  ex 
actness,  to  perform  it  less  fully,  than  we  know  to  have 
been  understood  and  intended,  in  the  original  spirit  of 
the  undertaking. 

Mr.  Macon  seldom  let  an  opportunity  pass,  without 
endeavouring  to  instil  into  those  minds  where  it  was 
most  needed,  such  lessons  as  the  above ;  until  many  years 
before  his  death,  it  could  scarcely  be  said,  that  there  was 
a  neighbourhood  in  the  state,  where  there  was  more  mo 
ral  rectitude,  than  in  the  one  in  which  he  lived. 


258  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

MR.  MACON  was  remarkably  fond  of  the  company  of 
young  people,  and  many  who  were  acquainted  with  him 
in  the  county  in  which  he  lived,  took  a  delight  in  visit 
ing  him  at  least  once  a  year.  It  was  really  a  spectacle, 
that  was  worth  a  day's  ride,  to  witness  the  cordiality  with 
which  he  would  receive,  and  the  genuine  hospitality 
with  which  he  would  entertain  a  company  of  the  sons 
of  his  relations  and  friends  on  these  occasions.  His 
manners  being  so  plain  and  easy,  they  all  felt  at  home 
as  soon  as  they  entered  his  door, — nothing  he  had  was 
too  good  for  them ;  and  being  one  of  the  very  best  pro 
viders,  he  always  had  every  thing  that  was  good.  It 
was  not  less  amusing  than  interesting,  on  these  occasions 
also,  to  witness  how  easy  it  was  for  him  to  produce  a 
lively  conversation  among  them,  by  his  inquiries  con 
cerning  their  habits  and  favourite  pursuits  in  life,  their 
partialities  and  prejudices  to  particular  men  and  things, 
amusements  at  home,  &c. :  and  as  soon  as  he  happened 
to  hit  upon  one  who  appeared  to  have  more  intelligence 
tfyan  his  fellows,  to  enter  in  conversation  with  him  upon 
subjects  of  more  import.  The  writer  of  these  pages 
was  present  on  one  of  these  occasions,  when  the  subject 
of  conversation,  after  dinner,  between  Mr.  Macon  and 
one  of  his  young  visitors,  happened  to  turn  upon  a  com 
parison  between  the  moderns  and  ancients.  The  young 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  259 

man  was  one  of  extraordinary  talents  and  first  led  to 
this  conversation  by  a  re  mark -upon- the  improvement 
that  was  daily  going  on  in  the  world  in  every  thing — 
in  architecture,  in  the  fine  arts,  in  literature,  &c. — at  the 
same  time  comparing  the  present  generation  to  the  an 
cients,  much  to  the  disparagement  of  the  latter,  and  con 
cluded  by  ridiculing  their  ignorance  and  stupidity  in  a 
way  well  calculated  to  rouse  a  man  of  Mr.  Macon's  uni 
versal  benevolence,  to  espouse  their  cause.  Mr.  Macon 
observed,  that  it  was  strange,  and  he  had  frequently  re 
flected  upon  it,  what  different  views  young  people  and 
old  ones  took  of  the  same  subject.  That  for  his  part,  he 
could  never  discover  this  monstrous  disparagement  to  the 
ancients  by  a  just  comparison  with  the  moderns,  in  any 
thing.  For  instance,  he  said,  in  architecture;  let  us 
look  at  the  temple  of  Solomon, — the  ancient  cities,  Tyre, 
Ninevah,  Babylon.  Are  there  any  thing  in  modern, 
times  to  be  compared  to  them.  Can  we  find,  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  to  the  present  day,  any  thing  to 
be  compared  to  that  sacred  edifice,  said  he,  which  was 
reared  on  Mount  Moriah,  surrounded  by  spacious  courts, 
making  a  square  of  half  a  mile  in  circumference — which 
was  entered  through  nine  gates,  which  on  every  side 
was  thickly  coated  with  gold  and  silver ;  the  gate  with 
out  the  holy  house  being  of  Corinthian  brass,  the  most 
precious  metal  in  ancient  times,  and  which  far  surpas 
sed  the  others  in  beauty.  This  gate,  he  said,  is  describ 
ed  to  be  much  larger  than  the  rest,  its  height  being  fifty 
cubits.  Josephus,  he  said,  represented  the  royal  portico 
of  this  temple  as  the  noblest  work  beneath  the  sun,  be 
ing  elevated  to  such  a  prodigious  height,  that  no  one 
could  look  down  from  its  flat  roof  to  the  valley  below. 


260  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

without  being  seized  with  dizziness ;  the  sight  not  reach 
ing  to  such  immeasurable  depth.  Josephus,  Mr.  Macon 
said,  says  that  the  city  of  Tyre  was  built  about  two  hun 
dred  and  forty  years  before  the  temple  of  Solomon.  As 
commercial  cities,  some  historian  says,  said  Mr.  Macon, 
that  ancient  Alexandria  and  London  may  be  considered 
as  approaching  the  nearest  to  Tyre.  But  he  went  on  to 
shew  that  neither  of  them  could,  by  any  possible  stretch 
of  the  imagination,  be  compared  to  Tyre  in  point  of 
commerce.  For  Alexandria,  he  said,  during  the  whole 
of  her  prosperous  days,  was  subject  to  foreign  rule;  and 
London,  great  as  her  commerce  and  her  wealth,  and 
possessing  as  she  does,  almost  a  monopoly,  of  what  has 
in  all  ages  been  the  most  enviable,  and  most  lucrative 
branch  of  trade,  that  with  the  east,  does  not  centre  in 
herself  as  Tyre  did,  without  a  rival  and  without  compe 
tition,  the  trade  of  all  nations,  and  hold  an  absolute 
monopoly,  not  of  one  but  of  every  branch  of  commerce. 
For  a  long  period  of  a  thousand  years,  not  a  single  pro 
duction  of  the  east  passed  to  the  west,  or  of  the  west  to 
the  east,  but  by  the  merchants  of  Tyre.  Her  merchants, 
it  is  said,  said  Mr.  Macon,  were  princes,  and  that  lived 
in  a  style  of  magnificence  unknown  in  any  other  coun 
try.  This  city  too,  it  is  said,  said  Mr.  Macon,  possessed 
scarcely  any  territory  beyond  their  own  walls,  maintain 
ed  a  seige  of  thirteen  years  against  the  whole  power  of 
Babylon,  and  another  of  seven  months  against  Alexan 
der,  whose  successes  had  afforded  no  instance  of  similar 
delay.  Mr.  Macon  proceeded  likewise  to  describe,  as 
well  as  his  memory  served  him,  the  splendour  and  mag 
nificence  of  Ninevah  and  Babylon — he  said  that  some 
historians  represented  Ninevah  to  be  forty-eight  miles  ia 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  261 

circumference,  and  its  walls  to  be  an  hundred  feet  high, 
and  so  broad  that  three  chariots  could  drive  on  them 
abreast ;  and  on  the  walls  were  fifteen  hundred  towers, 
and  each  two  hundred  feet  high.  Its  population,  histo 
rians  say,  said  Mr.  Macon,  was  more  than  six  score 
thousand  persons  that  could  not  discover  between  their 
right  hand  and  their  left.  Reckoning  the  persons  to 
have  been  two  years  old  and  under,  and  these  were  a 
fifth  part  of  the  whole,  the  population  would  amount  to 
six  hundred  thousand.  When  Mr.  Macon  came  to  the 
description  of  Babylon,  I  do  not  recollect  that  I  ever  saw 
him  look  half  so  interesting.  Is  there  any  thing,  said 
he,  rising  from  his  seat,  that  can  be  compared  to  the 
magnificence  of  the  city  of  Babylon,  under  the  reign  of 
Nebuchadnezzer,  which  at  that  time  rendered  it  the 
wonder  of  the  world  and  posterity.  He  described  its 
circumference,  its  shape,  the  number  of  its  squares. 
He  described  the  terminating  of  its  streets  at  each  end 
by  gates  of  brass,  of  prodigious  size  and  strength, — its 
walls,  their  height  and  breadth, — the  materials  out  of 
which  they  were  made ;  the  banks  of  the  river  which 
run  through  the  city  being  lined  with  the  same  materials. 
And  in  short,  almost  every  thing  connected  with  it,  with 
so  much  exactness  and  correctness,  that  one  would  have 
thought  he  had  studied  it  as  a  geographical  lesson  the 
day  previous.  He  asked  the  young  gentleman  if  Homer 
was  ever  excelled  in  poetry,  Demosthenes,  in  oratory, 
Sampson  in  strength,  or  Solomon  in  wisdom.  Extend 
ing  his  remarks  to  a  much  more  considerable  length  in 
favour  of  the  ancients,  than  my  recollection  at  this  time 
will  serve  me  in  relating  correctly.  But  from  what  is 
here  related  of  this  conversation,  the  reader  can  judge 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

how  useful  and  entertaining  the  conversation  of  such  a 
man  must  have  been  to  young  men  who  were  disposed 
to  improve  by  it.  Mr.  Macon  was  seldom,  if  ever,  the 
orator  of  the  company  he  was  in,  for  he  seemed  only  to 
consider  himself  entitled  to  a  share  in  common  of  the 
conversation, — and  preferred,  generally,  to  be  entertained 
by  others,  to  entertaining  them  himself. 


LIFE 'OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  263 


"CHAPTER  XXVI. 

IN  several  of  the  last  foregoing  chapters,  we  have  been 
engaged  in  giving  the  reader  examples  of  Mr.  Macon's 
domestic  qualities,  as  a  neighbour,  a  friend,  a  husband 
and  a  parent.  We  could  have  adduced  many  more  of 
similar  character — but  the  limits  we  prescribed  for  our 
selves,  prevented  such  indulgence. 

Mr.  Macon,  after  he  had  last  served  the  public  in  1836, 
in  the  capacity  of  elector,  seldom  .ever  left  his  residence, 
unless  to  visit  his  immediate  neighbours,  which  was 
done  generally  on  the  sabbath,  and  returned  home  at 
night*  During  the  week  his  time  was  employed,  (ex 
cept  when  company  prevented,)  in  riding  over  and  exa* 
mining  his  plantation ;  in  giving  directions  and  carrying 
on  that  economical  system  of  agriculture,  to  which,  from 
an  early  period  of  his  life,  he  had  been  so  remarkable 
for  his  attachment.  This  was  nearly  the  general  cha 
racter  of  his  life,  at  this  period,  until  about  three  or  four 
weeks  before  his  death,  he  was  attacked  with  a  spasmo 
dic  affection  of  the  chest  and  stomach ;  but  it  was  not 
so  severe  as  to  interrupt  his  usual  exercise  and  employ 
ment.  About  four  days  before  his  death,  he  was  par 
tially  confined  to  the  house,  enjoying,  however,  with  his 
usual  flow  of  spirits,  the  society  and  conversation  of  his 
numerous  friends,  who  visited  him  daily,  and  watched 
with  anxious  solicitude,  every  symptom  which  threaten.- 


264  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

ed  to  snatch  from  them  their  dearest  and  best  friend  and 
benefactor.  He  retained  his  intellectual  faculties  to  the 
last;  his  conversation  was  cheerful,  his  mind  tranquil  and 
composed,  until  the  scenes  of  life  closed  upon  him  on 
the  29th  of  June,  1837,  in  the  79th  year  of  his  age. 
The  morning  of  his  exit,  he  rose  at  his  usual  hou^ 
shaved  and  changed  his  clothes,  entertained  his  company 
as  usual,  until  about  ten  o'clock,  when  he  was  suddenly 
attacked,  (whilst  sitting  in  his  chair,)  with  spasms,  in 
his  chest  and  stomach,  and  on  being  assisted  to  his  bed, 
expired  without  a  struggle.  A  few  days  before  his 
death,  he  inquired  of  his  physicians  what  were  their 
prospects  of  giving  him  assistance,  who  honestly  inform 
ed  him  that  his  case  was  beyond  the  reach  of  medicine. 
He  immediately  asked  them  for  the  amount  of  their 
bills,  observing  at  the  same  time,  that  as  he  wished  to 
die  without  leaving  his  estate  incumbered,  it  was  best  he 
should  know  all  the  charges  against  it  in  his  life-time, 
that  he  might  so  provide  for  them,  that  his  executor 
might  be  at  as  little  trouble  as  possible.  He  appointed 
the  Hon.  Weldon  Edwards,  of  the  same  county,  execu 
tor  to  his  will.  Precluding  his  legatees  in  the  codicil 
from  any  recourse  either  in  the  courts  of  law  or  equity, 
upon  any  of  the  acts  of  his  executor  in  the  management 
or  distribution  of  his  estate, — believing,  as  he  stated,  from 
long  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Edwards,  he  possessed  both 
the  capacity  and  honesty  to  do  justice,  it  was  his  wish 
he  should  not  be  inteifered  with  in  any  thing  he  should 
think  proper  to  do,  as  his  executor. 

He  directed,  that  on  the  day  of  his  funeral,  prepara 
tions  should  be  made  both  for  the  eating  and  drinking, 
for  as  many  of  his  friends  as  might  think  proper  to  attend. 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON.  265 

He  selected  two  of  his  neighbours  to  make  his  coffin, 
directing  how  it  should  be  made,  in  the  very  plainest 
manner,  and  that  they  should  be  paid  for  it  before  his 
interment.  He  had  selected  his  place  to  be  buried,  some 
distance  from  his  residence,  in  the  woods,  on  the  way 
side,  many  years  before, — a  spot  of  land,  from  the  po 
verty  of  its  soil,  least  likely  ever  to  be  cultivated.  He 
directed,  after  his  interment  in  the  usual  way,  that  a  par 
cel  of  rock  should  be  brought  from  a  certain  one  of  his 
fields,  and  piled  upon  the  grave  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
prevent  the  molestation  of  cattle  or  other  intruders.  All 
of  which  instructions  were  strictly  attended  to  after  his 
death.  On  the  day  of  his  funeral,  which  was  preached 
by  the  reverend  Mr.  Hudgings  of  the  Baptist  order,  to 
whom  he  had  spoken  in  his  life-time  for  that  purpose, 
there  were  between  twelve  and  fifteen  hundred  people 
collected  on  the  occasion.  And  after  the  funeral  cere 
monies  were  over,  a  plenty  of  every  thing  was  furnished 
for  their  accommodation,  as  was  directed.  Thus  lived 
and  died,  and  was  buried,  Nathaniel  Macon ;  and  if  so 
ciality,  friendship  and  an  active  participation  in  the  pains 
and  pleasures  of  others,  be  the  principal  end  for  which 
we  are  created,  being  one  of  the  finest  flowers  of  human 
life,  he  must  certainly  attain  that  vivifying  form,  that, 
overshadowing  height,  for  which  all  our  hearts  thirst  in 
vain,  in  every  earthly  situation. 

The  cast  of  mind  which  appeared  to  be  most  natural 
to  Mr.  Macon,  made  him  look  forward  into  futurity,  and 
consider  what  would  be  his  condition,  millions  of  ages 
hence,  as  well  as  what  it  was  at  present.  He  knew  that 
the  misery  or  happiness  which  was  reserved  for  him  in 
another  world,  loses  nothing  of  its  reality  by  being  placed 
23 


266  LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

at  a  great  distance  from  him.  Objects  did  not  appear 
little  to  him,  because  they  were  remote.  He  considered 
those  pleasures  and  pains  which  lay  hid  in  eternity,  ap 
proached  nearer  to  him  every  moment,  and  would  be 
present  with  him  in  their  full  weight  and  measure,  as 
much  as  those  pains  and  pleasures  which  he  felt  at  any 
one  instant  of  his  life.  For  this  reason,  he  was  careful 
to  secure  to  himself  that  which  was  the  proper  happi 
ness  of  his  nature,  and  the  ultimate  design  of  his  being. 
He  carried  his  thoughts  to  the  end  of  every  action,  and 
considered  the  most  distant,  as  well  as  the  most  imme 
diate  effects  of  it.  He  superseded  every  little  prospect 
of  gain  and  advantage,  which  offered  itself  here,  if  he 
did  not  find  it  consistent  with  his  views  of  an  hereafter. 
In  a  word,  his  hopes  must  have  been  full  of  immortality ; 
his  schemes  were  large  and  glorious,  and  his  conduct 
suitable  to  one  who  knew  his  own  interest,  and  how  to 
pursue  it  by  proper  methods. 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON.  267 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

COULD  we  draw  aside  the  veil  which  conceals  the  mo 
tives  of  action, — were  we  able  to  pull  off  the  mask  from 
that  numerous  order  of  men  who  have  pretended  at  least 
to  be  the  benefactors  of  their  fellow-beings,  which  hides 
from  our  notice,  those  springs  of  conduct  by  which  they 
are  actuated,  and  prevents  our  inspection  of  that  source 
from  whence  their  actions  originated ;  we  should  find  that, 
in  the  great  majority  of  instances,  those  who  have  most 
seemed  to  be  friends  of  human  kind,  have  in  reality  most 
wanted  the  essential  ingredients  of  friendship,  and  exhibit 
ed  the  most  powerful  regard  to  their  own  aggrandizement. 
It  is  not  by  those  only  who  have  been  the  most  capacitated 
for  improving  the  condition  of  the  species,  but  who  have 
been  too  perversely  inclined  to  attempt  such  a  task,  that 
the  evil  has  been  wrought,  which  has  so  often  desolated 
the  world ; — but  it  has  been  by  those,  who,  covering  the 
natural  deformity  of  their  character  by  a  fair  disguise, 
have  proclaimed  themselves  the  friends  of  virtue  and 
freedom.  Such  characters  assuming  to  themselves  qual 
ities  utterly  incompatible  with  their  natures,  have  made 
those  qualities  the  means  of  raising  them  in  the  opinion 
of  others,  and  have  then  employed  their  elevation  to 
trample  upon  the  victims  of  their  fraud ;  and  claiming 
kindred  and  alliance  with  those  illustrious  devotees  of 
liberty,  with  whom  thay  have  not  one  thing  in  common, 


268  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

save  the  semblance  of  goodness; — have  cajoled  mankind 
into  the  belief  that  they  too  were  the  worshippers  of 
liberty,  and  have  made  that  belief  the  instrument  of 
treading  under  foot,  every  thing  which  has  been  esteem 
ed  sacred  and  venerable. 

It  is  not  the  less  true,  because  it  has  been  often  times 
remarked,  that  the  characters  who  have  the  most  benefit- 
ted  mankind,  and  improved  the  condition  of  the  species, 
have  been,  not  those  who  have  blazoned  their  names  by 
conquest,  and  who,  to  spread  abroad  the  lustre  of  their 
achievements,  have  not  scrupled  to  violate  all  the  duties 
of  humanity,  and  to  burst  asunder  all  those  ties  which 
have  been  imposed  upon  the  race,  for  the  purpose  of 
linking  them  together  in  one  common  brotherhood, — but 
it  has  been  those,  who  like  Mr.  Macon,  have  exerted  all 
their  talents  to  tame  down  that  nature  which  so  often 
arise,  in  order  to  assert  the  dominion  of  vice.  Those 
who  forsaking  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  and  the  paths  of 
that  which  is  falsely  termed  glory,  have  employed  their 
talents  towards  improving  the  moral  and  political  condi 
tion  of  their  fellow-beings,  and  towards  dispelling  those 
thick  clouds  of  error  and  prejudice,  which  so  much  ob 
struct  their  mental  vision.  Those  who  were  qualified  by 
their  abilities  to  lead  their  country-men  forward  in  the 
race  of  improvement, — in  that  race,  by  the  means  of 
which,  those  blessings  which  are  truly  valuable  are  alone 
to  be  obtained ;  in  teaching  them  to  elevate  themselves 
above  the  minor  objects,  which  too  much  engross  the  at 
tention  of  the  greater  portion  of  their  fellow-men;  in 
showing  them  that  liberty  of  thought  and  liberty  of  con 
duct,  which  can  alone  arise  from  a  consciousness  of  their 
importance  on  the  scale  of  being,  are  the  objects  which 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON.  269 

are,  above  all  others,  worthy  of  their  pursuit;  and  that 
setting  themselves  free  from  superstitious  reverence,  and 
enslaving  notions,  they  should  be  bent  upon  the  attain 
ment  of  something  above  those  debasing  objects  which 
keep  the  spirit  bound,  and  the  mind  fettered.  Those 
who,  according  to  the  original  constitution  of  their  na 
ture,  appear  as  though  they  were  really  fated  to  trample 
under  foot,  all  those  systems  which  have  in  any  way, 
tended  to  keep  men  chained  by  the  iron  bands  of  despot 
ism,  and  by  the  still  more  enduring  fetters  of  perfidy  and 
fraud,  which  have  been  but  too  often  the  instruments 
which  tyrants  have  used  to  enslave  them.  And  if  it  be 
lawful  to  bend  the  knee  to  any  thing  human,  it  surely 
arises  in  that  case,  where  we  see  such  men  attempting 
to  mitigate  the  evils  attendant  upon  this  life,  and  trying 
to  counteract  the  baneful  and  pernicious  effects  of  vice, 
by  the  more  salutary  influence  of  virtuous  example  ; 
elevated  above  that  regard  to  the  opinions  of  the  world, 
which  are  but  too  often  the  source  whence  spring  many 
of  the  actions,  which  are  looked  upon  as  honourable  and 
useful,  and  the  means  by  which  they  have  made  wis 
dom  their  choice,  can  abstract  themselves  from  all  asso 
ciation  with  those  more  grovelling  pursuits  which  char 
acterize  the  many ;  and  looking  abroad  upon  the  face  of 
things,  can  "follow  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,"  re 
gardless  of  every  thing  which  might  tend  to  interrupt 
their  progress,  to  shut  out  from  their  sight  the  scene  of 
beauty  and  loveliness,  which  their  fancys  may  have 
lighted  up,  and  by  seeking  an  alliance  with  which  they 
might  in  any  way  have  their  prospects  obscured,  or  their 
vision  darkened.  And  if  mankind  would  be  careful  to 
trace  the  mental  history  of  such  mighty  ones  of  the 


370  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

earth  ;  if  they  would  but  mark  the  gradual  unfolding  of 
the  principles,  the  powers  and  the  passions,  of  those  great 
master  spirits,  that  give  form  and  pressure  to  the  age  in 
which  they  live,  each  generation  would  be  furnished 
with  an  amount  of  moral  power,  by  which,  it  might  ele 
vate  itself  into  a  nobler  sphere  of  being,  and  leave  be 
hind  it,  a  long  train  of  glory  for  the  illumination  of 
posterity.  That  Nathaniel  Macon,  was  one  of  those, 
one  whose  moral  and  mental  history  should  be  regarded 
as  a  portion  of  the  common  riches  of  the  human  race, 
one  of  those  noble  minded  existences,  from  whom  the 
world's  happiness  and  glory  are  yet  to  spring,  there  can 
be  no  doubt ;  and  there  is  more  profit  in  scanning  the 
mind  of  such  a  being,  in  marking  the  origin,  the  com 
bination,  and  the  development  of  its  powerful  elements, 
than  in  contemplating  the  successes  of  all  the  military 
conquerors,  from  Alexander  to  Napoleon.  "By  the 
side  of  such  a  man,  Alexander  is  degraded  to  a  selfish 
destroyer  of  his  race;  Csesar  becomes  the  dazzled  vo 
tary  of  power;  and  Bonaparte,  a  baffled  aspirant  to  uni 
versal  dominion."  Had  he  lived  in  old  Grecian  times, 
he  would  have  been  qualified  to  have  been  a  Solon,  for 
the  Athenians ;  and  a  Lycurgus,  for  the  Spartans.  He 
would  have  taught  them,  like  those  great  men,  that  lib 
erty,  valour,  patriotism,  industry,  economy,  and  even 
frugality,  were  the  greatest  virtues  of  a  nation.  His 
life,  was  the  perfection  of  man's  moral  nature.  He  pos 
sessed  an  integrity,  which,  however  tempting,  or  how 
ever  secure  against  detection,  no  selfishness  nor  resent 
ment,  nor  lust  of  power,  place,  favour,  profit  or  pleasure, 
could  cause  to  swerve  from  the  strict  rule  of  right.  In 
tegrity  was  the  pervading  principle  of  his  soul ;  it  regu- 


LIFE  OP  NATHANIEL  MACON.  271 

lated,  guided,  controlled,  and   vivified  every   impulse, 
desire  and  action,  of  his  existence. 

Then,  in  looking  back  upon  his  past  life,  it  will  be 
found,  that  there  was  something  more  animating  to  cheer 
him  through  the  scenes  of  this  life,  than  are  to  be  ob 
tained  from  the  idle  applause  of  the  world  ; — something 
more  inspiring,  than  that  admiration  which  may  be  ob 
tained,  by  a  successful  course  of  enterprise  and  ambi 
tion  ; — something,  in  fact,  more  satisfactory  and  soothing 
to  the  mind,  than  any  thing  which  can  be  gathered  from 
the  short-lived  pleasures,  which  in  this  state,  so  much 
engage  the  attention.  That  he  cherished  that  virtue, 
which  always  shrinks  from  the  gaze  of  vulgar  eyes  ; 
that  he  took  lessons  of  wisdom,  which  are  here,  only, 
valuable;  that  he  pushed  forward,  the  career  of  doing 
good  to  his  fellow  beings,  to  the  end  of  his  days, — inat 
tentive  to  the  giddy  and  illusive  objects,  which  surroun 
ded  him ;  and  with  a  brighter  satisfaction  in  the  contem 
plation  of  the  misfortunes  of  this  life,  than  a  conscious 
ness  of  being  the  mere  subject  of  wonder  and  admira 
tion,  could  possibly  afford ;  he  carried  about  with  him, 
a  principle  which  served  at  all  times  to  soften  every  per 
turbation,  and  alleviate  every  painful  feeling.  That  he 
could  tame  down  prejudices, — overcome  that  spirit  of 
domination  and  rule,  which  all  are  so  prone  to  exert,  in 
questions  concerning  the  rights  of  conscience  ;  that  he 
could  master  those  feelings  in  the  breast,  which  so  often 
incline  one  man  to  assume  the  perogative  of  judging,  as 
if  he  was  infallible  in  matters  which  properly  can  alone 
interest  him,  for  whom  he  is  desirious  of  exercising  his 
judgment,  may  be  seen  also,  from  the  history  of  his 
whole  life.  And  notwithstanding,  envy  ha?  been  cast 


272  LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

as  a  shade  upon  the  glories  of  the  most  illustrious  heroes 
of  past  ages,  and  that  there  has  been  a  thousand  excep 
tions  to  characters,  which  have  made  the  nearest  approach 
to  perfection, — yet,  having  best  accomplished  the  end  for 
which  he  was  called  into  existence,  envy  herself,  in 
contemplating  his  character,  became  disrobed  of  her 
malicious  nature,  and  was  struck  with  admiration.  So 
it  may  be  said,  in  the  end  of  the  last  chapter  of  his  life, 
as  we  have  said  in  the  end  of  the  first,  that  he  has  lived 
and  died,  without  an  enemy.  Go  thou,  reader,  and  do 
likewise. 


FINIS, 


. 


1 


VY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


4Nov'52 


IN  STACKS 

FEB  1 6  1955 


< 


18  1367 


RECEIVKD 


,K?<A 


- 


\\-itf-  7- 

,T  17  1972 


D  21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


re  37702 


»       383633 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


